If we want to live in a better world we have to care about people we have never met.

My name is Andre. I am an artist. I have lived in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco since 2012. The tenderloin is the most diverse community in San Francisco, full of artists, activists, and working people. It is one of the last neighborhoods like it in a city that is hyper gentrifying into a wealthy monoculture. 

My neighborhood has always had a large unhoused population, and because of the pandemic and ensuing economic crisis, the number of Tenderloin residents forced to sleep outside and go hungry has skyrocketed. The city and its increasingly wealthy citizens are leaving these people to suffer. I’m sick and tired of watching this happen in one of the richest cities in the world. 

I have decided to feed 1000 of my unhoused neighbors every month. 

I informally started this project to combat the deep sorrow and anger that I feel when I see that the city has abandoned its people. Feeding someone may not correct systemic injustices that cause poverty and hunger, but it is a small act that can make all the difference in someone’s day, and that is at least a start. 

For $5000 a month I can distribute 1000 meals –– a small price to touch the lives of so many. I am sourcing my ingredients from local vendors who are supporting this cause with discounts on bulk purchases. Any money spent to feed people is going directly back into the family owned businesses in the neighborhood.

I used to sleep outside myself back in New York, before I moved to SF. I was lucky enough to get out of that situation, luckier than many. I will forever remember the feeling of eating a hot meal on a cold night spent outside. It reminds you that you are worthy of comfort and happiness. It is a way to show love to those whom most of society has abandoned. It’s important to remember that a few bad luck breaks is all that separates us, any one of us could wind up unhoused.

I feed my unhoused neighbors because they are just that; my neighbors.

I sleep inside these days, but I had a support system that helped me change my circumstances and many people don’t have this. The state has also left most without any social safety net, it is up to us to be each other’s community.

Anyone can offer mutual aid. I will soon publish a how-to manual for anyone who wants to replicate this project in their own neighborhood. If one person in each neighborhood does this then no one will go hungry. 

It is important that while we work to dismantle capitalism and all forms of oppression, we remember to simultaneously care for those victimized by them. 

If we do not live in a fair and equitable society then we should not wait for someone else to fix it. We should create that society now, person by person, block by block. A better world is possible. So what are we waiting for?

Solidarity Forever,

André