How to #HackHunger
My experience saving excess food to feed 100 meals in Seattle.
On Aug 5th, 2016 I went out with a few friends to get excess food and then feed hungry people in my community. For having no previous experience, we had a surprisingly very positive run, and the success has already planning the next ones.
This was my first #hackhunger run to actually help donate some food that would have gone to waste. I received a message from a buddy of mine who worked at Jimmy Johns that they throw away 20–30 loaves of perfectly good bread every night. Before the night of the food run I ran over to Jimmy Johns to grab the goods. After receiving a massive amount of bread, I threw it in the freezer to preserve it’s freshness and hit the shed because zero-day awaited.
The next day I was so excited to get this kicked off. I hopped into some new clothes and called a Uber to head to the grocery store to get the rest of the goods. I bought some lettuce, tomatoes, water bottles, apples and a ton of meat (chicken, roast beef, turkey, ham) and ran back to my Uber before he scoots off on me! I headed back home and when I got there I had 3 of my buddies waiting for me already.
We prepped up the kitchen and setup our own human processing line for sandwich making.
Everyone had their own task.
- 2 people focused on sandwich construction
- 1 person to slice apples
- 1 more to pack all of them into lunch bags.
Having more than one person really helps speed up the process of making these hack hunger runs. Once we finished and had all four big boxes of food packed we put them in my good friends four-door Honda. We packed the whole back seat and set off into the sunset!
Earlier I had done some research prior heading out into Seattle, I checked a website that had collective information about which areas had more homeless than others. I decided to go from the high population than the lower if we still had food, and I can happily say we made it all around the city with 100 meals.
Every single one of those meals handed out brought so much joy to their faces and instantly it had the same effect on me. Something that we take for granted like a meal brought as much joy when I give someone a expensive birthday present. It was at that moment I really started to think how fortunate I am to have the ability to provide meals and sustain myself. The first gentlemen I gave a meal to almost started crying and was saying how thirsty he was. I knew I would go far and wide after that moment. Soon people were hugging me and by standards were giving me credit for my acts.
“It was at that moment I really started to think how fortunate I am to have the ability to provide meals and sustain myself.”
From this experience I developed my own Do’s and Don’ts for #hackhunger runs
DO
- Ask “are you hungry?”
- Team up with friend(s)
- Mark ‘bags’ with UnSung stickers if possible
- Leave food next to sleeping homeless
- Leave food outside tents in public
- Supply water with a meal
- Respect if someone does not want their photo taken
DO NOT
- Upset anyone or be rude, remember you are a hero
- Force a meal on anyone
- Put yourself in positions you are not comfortable with
- Be stingy, if you think someone really needs it. Double down.
- Hold up traffic for a meal stop, park and run up — ask. Everyone counts.
- Throw meals, hand them over in a gentle manner. Protect the goods!
Stay tuned for more hacking runs & tips
Your Bitcoin Bandit
Arman Sadri
A little bit about me: I’ve the developer of the android app of our new baby ‘UnSung’. The progress of which is coming along swimmingly and we are excited for our planned fall release.
