Instant Karma’s Gonna Get You

Today, I volunteered as part of an organized group at DC Central Kitchen (DCCK), an organization that turns leftover food into millions of meals for thousands of at-risk individuals while offering culinary job training to once homeless and hungry adults. What should have been — and would have been — an all-around positive experience was marred by what happened after the event, when the group went to each lunch together at a nearby restaurant.

Everyone in this group willingly woke up early on a Sunday morning to come down and help prepare meals with this organization — meals that would eventually make their way to individuals who are homeless and otherwise in need. While I’m sure a few folks were there to meet volunteer requirements or to enhance their résumés, I’d like to believe that most of these people came in because they had an interest in alleviating homeless and poverty, and providing assistance to those in need.

The volunteer experience itself was great! Everyone, including the DCCK staff, was very pleasant and helpful. Not only did you feel like you were contributing to an important effort, but you also felt like your time and effort was appreciated and acknowledged by the staff there.

Afterward, about a dozen of the volunteers (including myself) went to lunch together at a nearby restaurant. At lunch, everyone was pleasant and friendly, and the conversation was entertaining and engaging. As we were headed out, a woman who was homeless came up to our group and asked us if we had a spare dollar or any change.

And everyone ignored her.

This literally stopped me in my tracks. We just spent three hours volunteering at an organization that helps people just like this woman (under the pretenses about caring about homelessness) and this group of people looked away from this woman as she was asking for help, avoided eye contact and pretended like she didn’t even exist.

I stopped and gave her the dollar that I had in my purse while everyone kept walking and left me behind. I’m trying to be as eloquent as possible in my argument here, but seriously, WTF?

I understand the arguments against giving people money on the streets — it addresses a symptom, not the problem; they might use the money for drugs or alcohol; there are simply too many people in the city in need to give to everyone; and, fair enough, you might not have any cash or change on you.

(Disclaimer: I don’t personally find most of these arguments to be compelling enough not to give some guy on the street a dollar.  As my dad used to say “I would rather give a person money and risk them spending it on drugs or alcohol, than to risk not giving money to a person who really needed it to sustain themselves or their families.”)

Fine, don’t give the woman a dollar, but at least have the decency to acknowledge that another human being is talking to you by looking her in the face and saying “I’m sorry, I don’t have a dollar to spare.” More than your money, these individuals want to be acknowledged. Ignoring people who are homeless is something I absolutely have no tolerance or understanding for, and I think significantly less of people (friends, acquaintances and strangers) who choose to look away and pretend that person doesn’t exist.

This experience also makes me call into question the spirit of volunteering. On the one hand, volunteering — no matter the motivation — is a good thing. The end product is that you assisted an individual in need. On the other hand, I fear it gives people the feeling like they’ve done their good deed for the day/week/month and makes them feel like they can do things like ignore people on the streets.

I’m not trying to turn all motivational speaker here, but come on, folks, the capacity to do good is infinite.

I will continue to volunteer, but I don’t know that I will be going out to any post-event lunches in the future. At the end of volunteering, I want to come away feeling energized and uplifted. Today, I just feel incredulous and incensed.

P.S. – Karma is going to get you.