Giving meters, repurposed parking meters that accept monetary donations to help those experiencing homelessness, are only the first step in a larger campaign in downtown Phoenix to educate people on healthy giving.
Healthy giving is the idea of donating time, food, money or clothes to various organizations that help those experiencing homelessness instead of giving money and food to people on the street.
Phoenix launched the giving meters in July 2019 after District 3 Councilwoman Debra Stark championed the program. The money collected through the meters will go toward outreach program PHX C.A.R.E.S., a city-run program that sends outreach teams to help those experiencing homelessness.
Stark’s inspiration for the idea of the giving meters came from seeing a similar program in Laguna Beach, California. She saw decorated meters around the city where residents can donate money to help curb panhandling and help those experiencing homelessness.
There are currently four meters located in downtown Phoenix, which were decorated by local artists. She hopes to expand the number of meters in the future and have meters placed around city libraries.
She said the reaction to the meters has been mostly positive, adding that residents seem to like the meter art.
“I think (the meters are) a really cool idea, but the message is more important,” she said. “It’s about healthy giving.”
The city partnered with Maricopa County to start the healthy giving campaign. The campaign is headed by Healthy Giving Council, made up of several municipalities, churches, community members and nonprofits like the Human Services Campus.
“We wanted the healthy giving campaign to be more (than) just the meters, that’s just a little example of how you can give healthy, but let’s have an entire campaign about healthy giving,” Stark said.
The council gives presentations to neighborhood groups, church groups and elementary schools to spread the message of giving. They hope to give presentations at high schools and colleges in the future.
Jerome Parker Jr., Community Pastor for First Christian Church and a spokesperson for the council, gives many of the presentations.
“We want people to know that wanting to do something good for somebody else is a good thing and we want them to do that,” Parker said. “But we want them to do it in a way that’s healthy and sustainable.”
He used to bring groups of volunteers to the Human Services Campus around the holidays to hand out food.
After handing someone a sandwich and watching them throw it on the ground because they didn’t like all the toppings, Parker said he realized there must be a better way to help.
“It doesn’t incentivize a person to actually take steps to end their homelessness, it literally cripples people into becoming dependent on street feeding and street giving as opposed to taking the steps necessary to end their homelessness,” he said.
His wife educated him on the unintended consequences of street feeding people, as well as some of the services the Human Services Campus provides such as three meals a day.
One unintended consequences is the amount of trash that collects from pre-packaged food. Parker said many people don’t realize that the trash can build up.
“I asked myself, ‘Is me giving these things out during the holidays for me, so I can feel good, or is it really helping somebody else?’” he said. “The honest answer was that it was really mostly for me to feel good. When they eat that sack lunch, or not, they didn’t get any closer to ending their homelessness.”
Food Not Bombs, an international organization that brings healthy food to those experiencing homelessness, has a group of volunteers in downtown Phoenix that brings home-cooked vegan food to Civic Space Park every Sunday evening.
Ethan Marr, a volunteer who has been with Food Not Bombs for around nine years, does not believe that street feeding is detrimental to those experiencing homelessness.
“I think that comes from a point of view that believes in tough love,” Marr said. “There’s an idea that if you give people money, or you give people handouts who are begging, you’re contributing to them staying in that cycle.”
He said he believes that preventing street feeding won’t solve the problem of homelessness because people will still be on the streets asking for food.
He said he also enjoys the sense of community that Food Not Bombs has developed through bringing people together to eat.
“Even people who can afford to take food aid, they don’t have a sense of community in their own space,” he said. “They love coming down and feeling togetherness and talking to each other.”
The council said it doesn’t want to discourage people from helping those that are homeless. They said they want to channel the same energy and desire to help people through aiding organizations that actively help end homelessness.
The council has recently partnered with Clear Channel Outdoor, an outdoor advertising company, to put up 76 billboards around the Valley regarding their healthy giving campaign.
Contact the reporter at vewahl@asu.edu.
