Of Soup Runs

My boyfriend Nick brought me to help out in a soup run organized by an affiliation of churches in Bath called The Genesis Trust. Basically, volunteers from the churches that are a part of this initiative will sign up and are subsequently included in a rota, with each person helps out about once or twice a month.

It was about 7pm when Nick and I - having been given a lift by Jane and Hugh, who are presumably the leaders of this volunteer group - arrived at the carpark where the soup run would be. The night was pretty cold, and the carpark was fairly empty, so I wasn't sure if anyone would even be coming. But then, people started trickling in a couple of minutes later. A portable table was set up, along with huge flasks of tea and coffee, bags filled with sandwiches, a large pot of soup, and fruits. As I was a newcomer, and didn't have the experience or training of engaging with the homeless people, Jane asked me to stay with her, helping her man the table and distributing the coffee. There were other volunteers who went around giving out sandwiches and fruits, and really lending a listening, sympathetic ear to the people.

Of course, that didn't mean I was not to converse with them at all. There were a couple of them who stayed and chatted with me a little, asking about what I studied, where was I from, etc. It was really nice, and everyone was really amiable, asking for food and drinks politely, and standing around with their mates just catching up. There were a few people who were slightly disruptive, one of them was drunk and, with a bottle in hand, trying to provoke another person to a fight. But all in all, the soup run went on quite civilly.

There was a man who came in quite late, about 8.30pm. He looked dishevelled, but not from living on the streets, but rather because he had been in a scuffle. He came in, looking angry, raging about how the policemen are constantly trying to move him on. He took some food, and he wasn't rude to us or anything, but the whole time he was just venting out his anger at the coppers. I actually do sympathise with him, but obviously because I don't know the whole story, I choose to reserve my judgment. Based on what I hear and see, in general the police won't normally get rough with people unless they're disturbing public peace. There may be exceptions to this, there may be police officers who abuse their authority, but it's always best to listen to anyone's story with a pinch of salt.


What - or who, rather - I remember most is Bob, one of the homeless men who, noticing how cold my hands were getting, lent me his gloves to wear - and they were really warm gloves too. More than that, he helped the volunteers pick up the rubbish around the area and even helped us throw it away. He does this on a regular basis as well, as all the volunteers seem to know him and because Nick tells me so.

It's really important to see each person as individuals, individuals who are facing different circumstances, individuals who have different personalities. There are some who are genuinely the nicest people ever, and there are some who may not be so. It's so important to really get to know them, and to really try to understand things from their point of view. Chatting with Jane and Hugh, I thought it was really considerate the way they called them "clients", it shows how the volunteers were actually going to serve them and really listen to their problems. That's the most important part, perhaps - just showing some love, care, and concern without being judgmental or critical.

There may be some who became homeless because of addiction or the things they did, but instead of shunning them, we should try to help them get their lives together. It may be hard, especially as there are some who don't really want to help themselves, who don't want to fix their lives. It still doesn't mean we should just ignore them. We should try to help them out, though try also to challenge them to turn their lives around. And for those who are really trying to lift themselves from their homelessness, we really need to start thinking of how to help them on a practical level, rather than just offering ineffectual gestures of commiseration. There are loads of organizations that try to reinhabit them, Moving On, for instance. But I think it's difficult on their end too, perhaps because of bureaucracy, paperwork, and the myriads of cases they would have to deal with. (this is only a conjecture, having not come into contact with Moving On or any other related organizations before).

It's sad, because homelessness becomes an issue that gets sidelined, because sometimes there isn't a voice defending them. But how can we ignore such a large number of people who are displaced, left without a place to go? Some may argue and say that, "they have fully-functioning bodies, they can go and work!" It may be so. But how would we know the difficulties they may be facing? How can we even "judge" whether someone is deserving of help or not? The truth is, we don't. We have to help them, not by giving money, but by showing them a little warmth and kindness, by really trying to understand what they need, not what they want.