Action Hunger to unveil vending machine for homeless people

Nice idea but ... I bet they get vandalised and robbed within days.

A vending machine for the homeless is being set up in the UK by a new charity that wants to provide 24-hour access to food and clothing.

The machine will be activated by a key card handed out to street people by homeless charity The Friary.

Cameras will monitor the machines to ensure the cards are not misused.

The machines will offer water, fresh fruit, energy bars, crisps, chocolate, and sandwiches, along with socks, sanitary towels, antibacterial lotion, toothbrush and books.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...shire-42117503

Re: Action Hunger to unveil vending machine for homeless people

what,no mens shreddies

Re: Action Hunger to unveil vending machine for homeless people

Absolutely stupid idea. It will be emptied in seconds and everything in it sold on for pennies to go towards their drink/drug habits.

People are so clueless about what they perceive as the "homeless" situation.

This Christmas I will likely be helping out at a local charity that provides meals over the Christmas period. Every year people all over the city respond to calls to provide donations to the charity including clothing and every year they are inundated with donations from "normal" people who think of "homeless" people sitting there shivering on the streets. The charity literally gets black bags upon black bags filled with the same clothing items. Last Christmas the bags were piled up to the ceiling.
90% of it was scarves, gloves, jumpers and jackets.

This is the limit of "normal" people's perceptions of the problem and I can tell you that this perception is utterly wrong and misplaced.

Over that Christmas period the charity will place all those clothes in a large room and invite the "homeless" guests to come in, limited to ONE visit to the clothes room per day.

What do you suppose happens?

Do you think homeless people go in with a smile and come out with a new scarf, set of gloves and a warm jacket for themselves?

If so you are duped and mislead. Sorry but you are.

These people take away entire black bags of these clothes, literally as much as they can humanly carry and as much as the charity permits them to take on that day.

The stuff is piled into car boots and driven away and then swiftly sold for money. Whether it's sold to market traders (the good stuff) or to clothing charity collectors (the crap stuff) doesn't matter. The sentiment of the people who donated it does not match the reality.

These people want money, that's all. They need money to fuel their drink/drug habits and nothing else matters.

Give them a brand new super warm jacket and a week later you will see them wearing some shabby dirty old jacket instead, having quickly sold your lovely donation for a few quid for that next "fix" thanks very much.

I'm afraid this is how it really is. The adverts on telly are BS. And there will be plenty of them this Christmas showing heart wrenching pictures of dishevelled people of all ages, sitting or lying in the streets and shop entrances. Those charities will be asking for your money, others will ask for clothes.

Think very carefully before donating imo.

All you are doing is feeding company coffers or fuelling drug habits.

There is no easy answer to all of this but it most certainly lies in REHAB and associated services. These people need to be shown how to get "the monkey off their backs" as they call it and given real support to achieve that.

So any money or donations need to go to those actual support centres that get these people into rehab and beyond.

With all this in mind, it should be obvious then that a street vending machine will be utterly useless. As it is, ALL of those vending items are freely available to these people in a myriad of different support centres across their cities. They can get anything from clothing to toiletries and sanitary products. But the support centres are not stupid and so limit how much of anything a person can take, to prevent them abusing the privilege and just selling the products on.

A vending machine will be emptied in seconds, simple as.

Re: Action Hunger to unveil vending machine for homeless people

It sounds a fantastic idea, but I agree that it will be abused by some and used for money for alcohol and drugs.

Although I have huge compassion for those who are homeless and of course we cannot tar everyone with the same brush.