Homeless L.A. Project

Upon arrival I kept the camera in the car, I always do.  That’s my way of mitigating the impact that the presence of camera has on people.  I like to show up as myself first and get a feel for the folks I’m going to be working with.  I met Ron for the first time and helped setup the table we were gonna be using.  Volunteers started trickling in and set up shop in a jiffy.  I helped serve food for about 15-20 minutes, but still made no mention of the camera.  I was really anxious to bring it out to capture what was happening, but at the same time was beginning to question the probity of the setup.

For starters, what Coach Ron is doing isn’t a full fledged non-profit program with large gifts dropping into a hefty endowment.  From a rudimentary perspective, it’s just a guy setting up a table on a random street in DTLA.  Online there was mention that the focus was on feeding homeless veterans, however, let’s just say that wasn’t the case.  There was no method employed to verify the people we were handing food to were in fact military veterans.  However, this realization was met with a great level of compassion... in other words wisdom which I credit was gained through the teachings learned in school as I was a Philosophy major early in my collegiate career.    

No we weren’t in a facility with a kitchen and shelter. No we did not verify if they were actually veterans.  What we were doing is serving homeless and disadvantaged people and no matter how you look at it, that’s still providing a smile to someone who needs it, and if they weren’t wearing that smile on their face certainly their tastebuds were.  We were there serving all thanks to Coach Ron, how can you be mad at that?  Because of his efforts the folks you will meet in episode one had the opportunity to be on the ground and share a laugh or two with people they otherwise wouldn’t have connected with in their daily routine.

Coach Ron had a great spirit and if you have never volunteered in this kind of environment you can think of him as your guardian through this journey.  It is amazing to think what a man with a table and access to the web can accomplish.