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Posted on 12/23/2005 12:12:02 PM PST by COBOL2Java
BALTIMORE (CNS) -- A Jesuit-run college in Baltimore has suspended a food program for the homeless after the city's health department informed student participants that they could not distribute sandwiches without a license.
Despite not having a license, which requires that hot and cold running water be available where the food is served, several students from Loyola College in Maryland have continued to give out sandwiches on their own outside St. Vincent de Paul Church in downtown Baltimore on Monday nights.
"We think the regulations are ridiculous," said Ashley Biggs, an 18-year-old sophomore and the student coordinator of the outreach program, called Care-A-Van. Biggs said students in the college program had been giving out food in a downtown parking lot when Baltimore City Health Department officials asked them to stop Nov. 14.
Four to six students have continued to distribute food at St. Vincent de Paul independent of the college program because "people still need to eat," she told The Catholic Review, newspaper of the Baltimore Archdiocese.
"Technically, it is illegal," Biggs added. "They could potentially give us a citation and a fine."
Mark Kelly, a Loyola spokesman, said the college's Center for Values and Service is in discussions with students and the health department to "come up with a working solution" that will allow the center's outreach program to resume.
One option is implementing a health department suggestion to get licensed and relocate to an area next to the Supermax prison in Baltimore. Another possibility is for the college to find a health-certified kitchen and alternative location, Kelly said.
Sister Catherine "Missy" Gugerty, a School Sister of Notre Dame who directs the Center for Values and Service, said she was thrilled that the students were continuing their outreach even though they no longer can do it through the college. "I can't think of a more impressive scenario," she said.
Sister Missy said the van outreach has become an "essential service." About 20 student volunteers participate, and approximately 50-75 people have been receiving ham and cheese sandwiches along with a drink every Monday and Tuesday.
The number of clients has increased dramatically since the program began 1991, she said.
Sister Missy said students are "gravely concerned" about the well-being of the people who have benefited from the outreach program. "The students really felt that if the people were not getting the sandwiches, the alternative is to pick food out of the trash cans," she said.
Melisa Lindamood, senior adviser on legislative affairs for the Baltimore City Health Department, said the city is enforcing regulations related to the licensing of food providers as a way of protecting the homeless. She said Baltimore has been recognized nationally for having the cleanest restaurants.
"We wanted to be able to say that any outdoor food provider is as safe as the Cheesecake Factory or any other restaurant," said Lindamood, who noted that licensing fees are waived for nonprofit groups such as Loyola's.
Lindamood said many homeless people have "compromised immune systems," and that licensing serves as "a check to make sure homeless persons are protected."
"These licenses are to make the food safer, not to stop distribution," she said.
When preparing food, Sister Missy said, students wear rubber gloves and place each sandwich in a sealed baggie. The food is refrigerated until it is distributed, she said.
Students are not eager to relocate their outreach to the site promoted by the health department, Sister Missy said. "The (homeless) people have told us they don't like to be there," she said. "It is dreary, and some of them have had interactions with the law and have spent time in some form of jail system and so it is really hard for them to be near there."
Biggs said she believes the city is trying to hide the homeless by moving the food program to the Supermax site. "Out of sight, out of mind," she said. "If people don't see the problem, then it doesn't exist."
Merry Christmas to you too. Not all homeless people are those who refuse to work.
I can't stand watching anyone go through a fast food joint's dumpster. If I see someone doing that, I go into the store, buy one of the combo meals, take it out and give it to the person. What's five bucks to me?
A few years ago, My wife and I saw a guy going through a Taco Bell dumpster. He was next to a car with his wife and kids in it. They were all watching to see if he was finding anything.
Damn! I went up and asked him if he'd let me buy the family some food. He said that would be OK, so everyone piled out of the car, and we all went into the Taco Bell and they ordered what they wanted, at my insistence.
Turned out that the guy was on his way with his family to a town about 150 miles down the road to stay with family. His car had broken down and getting it fixed had taken every cent he had. He was out of gas and his family wasn't answering the phone.
So, when they finished eating, my wife and I bought him a tank of gasoline and he was on his way. I hate this kind of stuff happening.
So, if you're at the fast food joint this Christmas season, have a look. If you see someone there digging in a dumpster, do something, please!
Ashley Biggs would most surely get enlightened if Typhoid Mary was to work in the cafeteria of Loyola College.
Thanks for the thought. I will indeed!
Feed the homeless? Only the government is allowed to feed the homeless and heal the sick. More democrats rise to power that way.
Thanks!
Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here
Then you probably don't mind it when food service workers don't wash their hands after using the bathroom?
They are handing out sandwiches that have been prepared elsewhere.
That won't work, you just can't get lawyers to stop bitching...
How sad.
I also knew a waiter years ago who saw the same in his upscale restaurant. He started collecting food from his own and other restaurants and from the supermarket delis in the neighborhood. After he got the routine perfected, doing it all on his won time and even doing a mini meals on wheels program, he had to shut it down.
The health implications are obvious so maybe nothing can be done but it is a shame.
There's one restaurant near me that pours bleach into the dumpsters to keep anyone from eating the food thrown out. I'm quite certain they aren't doing it out of worry about lawsuits. They just don't want bums hanging out back of their restaurant, I guess.
What I'd like to do, but can't afford, is to reserve a table for 12 or something like that, then go round up 12 homeless guys, take them INSIDE that restaurant and buy them all a meal.
Wonderful thing to do. :-)
Merry Christmas!
Requiring hot and cold running water is NOT ridiculous. Don't you stooges ever need to wash your hands? No? OK, excuse me, but I think I'll pass on that sandwich. And on just about everything else you have slammed together for people who might never know about your carelessness.
Wouldn't a hospital-sized pump bottle of waterless hand sanitizer do the trick? It isn't like there are restroom facilities outside. I'd assume the students would go inside the church to use their facilities if the need arose and presumably would wash their hands there. I guess the regs predate Purell.
Every single momentary human gesture is subject to "liability" and extortion from the legal "industry." Funny how the abortion industry seems to be the single exception to the rule.
Lawyers have scared off far too many good samaritans, charities, and good-will.
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