Invite a homeless guy to your front doorstep. Give him some food and tell him that there will be more free food everyday. See how many show up the next day. Then see what they leave in your yard. Then see them knock on your neighbors doors. Then see them complain about your food.
Since this is true, I propose that they have to do some work before they are fed. They could earn a local currency (like the
Ithaca Hours) that they redeem for a meal. There is all kinds of work that even drug fried people can do (especially with Cities cutting back on services, such as maintenance of public spaces, due to the budget crisis). All the soup kitchen volunteers have to do is diversify a little bit so that they put together a work opportunity and then sign off on the hours worked. Don't get too big so that there is face to face accountability for the volunteer supervisors (less chance for corruption) and form a new group if the first one gets too big.