Feeding the Houston Homeless

Valentine's Day is full of love and good food for many people, but for those who don't have homes or loved ones it is just another cold day. I decided to focus on those who are less fortunate than us to bring them a warm meal, a water and a Valentine's goodie bag. The meal we prepared was pasta with meat sauce, a very romantic entrée. The goodie bag included a chocolate, a mask so that they are able to practice safe COVID-19 procedures, and of course a thick pair of socks since the weather here in Houston in February was snowing. We advertised for this fundraiser on Instagram and managed to collect over $400! We spent all the money we raised to buy supplies for the goodies that we were handing out. After a morning of cooking and packing the goodie bags we drove around downtown Houston. This was the most amazing experience that any of us have ever had. At first it was difficult because since it was freezing many of them were hidden in front of building entrances and inside tents. But many streets were filled of people laying next to each other, one after the other until the end of the block. Those were the best places to go. One of us would get out of the car holding a bag that contained all the goodies and just say if anybody was hungry and a bunch of people would stand up and run towards us. That was the most amazing feeling. We could see it in their eyes that they were so grateful to receive a meal. We spoke to many of them, some of them were so funny and would joke around to see if we had any garlic bread that could go with the pasta they would even dance to the music that was playing from the car. Others were very determined to just get the food and go. It felt as if they were scared but many of them also had not eaten all day so they would ask if we had anything else to give to them before they disappeared. Lastly, we had a group of people come towards us who could not believe that we were handing them FREE food, they were so grateful they did not even know how to thank us. These examples are the reasons why I started WAYLA. I want to keep helping others. I wanted a safe place to create fundraisers with people who also want to help and who feel that everybody deserves to be treated kindly.