eye love beginnings

It’s hard to imagine when you’ve always had a home, a warm bed, and food in the kitchen that someday, it could all be gone. No one starts out their life hoping that they’ll end up on the streets; though sadly, some do begin their life there.

Throughout our lives separately and then together after we got married, we have had a passion to love on people and serve those that are less fortunate than us. Though neither of us grew up with a lot of money, we grew up in homes that were filled with compassion and were led by example to always love/serve others and give to those that had less than us.

Over the years, our compassion for the unhoused has grown as our life has taken twists and turns that we never saw coming. We ourselves have had to couch surf with friends and live with family while looking for new housing. It is such a humbling and scary experience, but we were some of the lucky ones. We had family and friends that opened their homes to us, and we never had to live in a shelter or in our car. The most important thing we had was love and support. Our work in social services taught us that that is not the case for most that are “homeless.”

For years, we have talked about the idea of starting a project that would give back and meet a basic need for those that don’t have homes. What would that look like? It was important that we give away something hot, portable, full of nutritional value, but soft enough to eat since poor dental health is a huge issue for those on the streets. What could we give away that met all of that criteria? And the answer was suddenly clear, burritos-with shredded beef or chicken so anyone is able to eat it easily.

I think all of us have a certain idea what homeless looks like. It’s the older man that pushes his shopping cart around town collecting cans, the couple that pushes their belongings around in a stroller with no baby in it, the drug addicts, the criminals and the list goes on.

But, what do the homeless really look like? They look like the well-dressed mom that’s living in her car with her teenage son. They look like the grandma that lives in her SUV with her dogs. They look like the man that lives in a tent on the sidewalk that gets up every day and goes to his job that doesn’t pay him a livable wage. They look like the guy you went to high school with that fell on hard times over the past few years. They look like the students that camp out together because they can’t afford housing. They look just like you and I.

And, even we can admit, that sometimes the people we come in contact with can seem scary or sound scary, they may very well be drug addicts, they may have mental health issues, and you know what? That’s ok. We will feed anyone that comes across our path that is hungry, because every human deserves the dignity of a hot meal.

Our mission isn’t to change anyone, preach at anyone or make guidelines that they have to meet in order to eat. Our mission is to look them in the eyes, build relationship and meet an immediate need-no strings attached.