I Asked 10 Homeless People What They Ate Today | Their Answers Will Haunt You 

Shalom, mishpacha. Welcome. Come in, and find a place to rest your heart for a few moments. This isn’t an easy topic, but it’s a holy one. It’s a conversation we need to have, not as a burden of guilt, but as a calling of compassion, straight from the heart of our Father.

The steam from my coffee cup fogged the window of my car, a thin barrier between me and the biting cold of the city street. Outside, the world moved in a blur of hurried coats and focused destinations. And then, there was David. He wasn’t a blur. He was still, a statue on a park bench, wrapped in a threadbare blanket that did little to hide his shivering frame.

Our eyes met for a fleeting second. It was a moment that pierced the comfortable insulation of my day. In that glance, I didn’t just see a homeless man. I saw a person. A soul. Someone’s son. And a question, born of the Ruach HaKodesh (the Holy Spirit), settled in my spirit with a weight I couldn’t ignore: “What did he eat today?”

That question became a mission. Over the next week, I went beyond handing out a few dollars or a quick blessing. I stopped. I sat. I asked. I listened. I asked ten of our homeless neighbors a simple, profound, and heartbreaking question: “What did you eat today?”

Their answers will haunt you.

One man, named Michael, held up a single, bruised banana. “This. A lady gave it to me this morning. She said G-d bless me.” His lunch and dinner were a question mark.

A woman, Sarah, her eyes tired beyond her years, whispered, “Some crackers from the shelter last night. I’m saving the other half for later.” It was 2 PM.

Another, a young veteran named Carlos, just shook his head. “Nothing yet. The line at the mission was too long, and I had to get to the clinic.”

Half a bag of chips from a gas station. A cup of soup if the church is serving. A piece of bread.

These weren’t answers about food. They were cries of the human spirit. They were stories of survival measured in crumbs. Each answer was a window into a cold, relentless reality of hunger that exists just blocks from our warm homes and full refrigerators. This is the pressing, emergency issue of famine on American streets. And as believers, grafted into the rich olive tree of Israel and following our Jewish Messiah, we cannot look away.

The Groaning of the Land: God's Heart for the Hungry

Our G-d is not a distant, disinterested deity. From the very beginning, He has revealed Himself as the provider, the sustainer, and the fierce defender of the vulnerable. His heart beats in rhythm with the cries of the hungry.

“If you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.” (Isaiah 58:10)

The Hebrew word for “spend yourselves” here is powerful. It implies giving your very self, your energy, your essence. This isn’t about a token offering from our excess; it’s about investing our very being. The promise attached is breathtaking: our own light—our joy, our purpose, our hope—will shine brightest precisely when we engage with the darkness of another’s suffering.

“Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward them for what they have done.” (Proverbs 19:17)

Read that again. When we offer a sandwich, a bottle of water, or a kind word to a person in need, the Almighty Himself considers it a personal loan. We serve a G-d who intimately identifies with the poor and the hungry. He takes it personally.

King David, a man after G-d’s own heart, understood this. He sang, “Blessed is he who considers the poor; the LORD will deliver him in the time of trouble.” (Psalm 41:1). To “consider” means to pay close attention, to truly see them, to understand their situation. This is the first step of compassion: seeing the person behind the circumstance, just as I was prompted to see David on that park bench.

The Compassion of Our Messiah: What Yeshua Teaches Us

Yeshua HaMashiach walked our streets. He felt the dust of the road on His feet and the press of the crowds. And His eyes were constantly drawn to those the world overlooked: the sick, the outcast, the poor, and the hungry. His ministry was one of tangible, practical compassion.

The most famous example, of course, is the feeding of the multitudes. But look closely at His motivation.

“When Yeshua landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.” (Mark 6:34)

His compassion—His rachamim, a deep, gut-level mercy—came first. And it led to action. Later, He said to His disciples, “You give them something to eat.” (Mark 6:37). He involved His community. He took their limited resources (five loaves and two fish), blessed them, and multiplied them to meet the overwhelming need.

Yeshua’s teaching was unequivocal. In His profound description of the final judgment, He says:

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in…” (Matthew 25:35)

The righteous, surprised, ask when they ever saw Him in such a state. And the King replies, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40).

This is the core of our faith. We serve a Messiah who so identifies with the suffering that an act of kindness to a hungry person is an act of worship directly to Him.

How We Can Respond: From Heartbreak to Action

Hearing these stories can leave us feeling heartbroken and overwhelmed. The problem is so vast. But the call of Scripture is not to solve world hunger overnight. It is to be faithful with what is in front of us. It is to let our heartbreak be the catalyst for compassion, not despair.

Here are a few ways we can respond, right where we are:

1. See and Acknowledge: The simplest yet most profound act. Make eye contact. Smile. Say “hello.” Learn a name. Ask, “How are you today?” Acknowledge the humanity of the person asking for help. This costs nothing but means everything.

2. Be Prepared: Keep “blessing bags” in your car. Fill them with non-perishable, easy-to-open items: water bottles, granola bars, fruit cups, nuts, crackers, socks, gloves, and wet wipes. When you see someone, you are prepared to offer more than a glance.

3. Support Faithful Ministries: Partner with local Messianic Jewish outreaches, homeless shelters, or soup kitchens that are already doing the work on the ground. They need our financial support, our prayers, and our volunteer hours.

4. Advocate and Educate: Use your voice. Share stories (respectfully, without exploiting dignity). Talk about the issue within your community. Encourage your congregation to start or support a food pantry or a weekly meal service.

5. Pray Without Ceasing: Pray for protection, provision, and dignity for those on the streets. Pray for the organizations serving them. Pray for wisdom for our leaders. And pray for your own heart, that it would remain soft and open to the leading of the Spirit.

A Call to Compassion: Let Your Light Rise

Mishpacha, we are called to be a light to the nations. Sometimes, that light shines brightest in the darkest places—on a cold street corner, in a dusty parking lot, or in the eyes of a hungry person we choose to truly see.

The answers I heard that week haunt me. But they also fuel me. They remind me that our faith is not meant to be comfortable. It is meant to be active, alive, and poured out for others, just as Yeshua poured Himself out for us.

This is our shared mission. This is the Torah of compassion lived out through the power of the Spirit.

Join Me in This Holy Work

If this post has stirred your heart, I invite you to join me. You are not alone in your desire to help. Let’s be a community of action and hope together.

· Pray: Commit to praying for the hungry in your city this week.

· Share: Share this post to raise awareness. Sometimes, the first step is helping others see the need.

· Act: Put together one blessing bag for your car this week. One act of preparation is an act of faith.

· Give: If you feel led to support practical, hands-on outreach to those experiencing homelessness and hunger, your support can literally become bread on someone’s plate and hope in their heart. 

No action is too small when it is done with great love. Every sandwich, every prayer, every dollar given with a compassionate heart is a loan to the LORD Himself. And He is faithful to repay, not always in material ways, but in the profound joy of joining Him in His work of redemption.

May our light rise in the darkness. May our night become like the noonday.

B’ezrat Hashem (With G-d’s help), let it be so.

Amen.