Vegan + Homeless = LA

The other day, I was picking Angie up from work, and while she was walking to the car she was approached by a homeless man on the street.  He was kind of scruffy looking, but so am I… so I didn’t worry that he was going to mess with her too much.  Besides, Angie is probably tougher than I am anyway, so she can take care of herself.

We’ve been trying to keep snacks on us for the homeless because we don’t ever carry cash, and even if we did, we don’t always think it’s the best solution.  So, we keep snacks with us.  (For all of you who have ridden in our car, or rifled through my backpack, the snacks aren’t for me…)

Normally, a homeless person asks for money, and we ask if they would like a snack (cereal bar, cheese crackers, graham crackers etc.).  Generally, this is a pretty straight forward exchange, and most people are grateful for the boost in food, and sometimes it leads to longer conversations.

This time it led to a longer conversation, and I think that this man was grateful, but upon the offer of a snack, he declined because he sad that he was Vegan.

Thankfully, we keep vegan snacks on us for occasions just like this… mind you, we live in LA now.  So she told him that we had a vegan cereal bar.

He hesitated, and re-up’d the exchange asking, “Do you have Strawberry?”

Crafty consumers we are, of course we had strawberry because that’s the number one flavor of cereal bar for homeless men in LA between the ages of 34-and 50.

So, we gave him a Vegan Strawberry Cereal Bar, and he merrily went away.

The old adage goes that beggars can’t be choosy, but I imagine that if you don’t ask, then you may never know, and you certainly won’t receive.