This is a second time that I volunteer for the Coalition for Homeless. The first time was back on the Christmas Eve last year. This time I and Nicky are assigned to the downtown route that includes Chinatown area, Penn Station area and Wall Street area.

We have 5 people in our team and 7 stops for our trip.

The Chinatown stop is the most crowded stop. When we arrive there, two lines of men and women are already formed. There must be at least 80 people right there and most of them are Chinese. I am told to give out two sets of sandwiches, two boxes of milk, juice and oranges to men and one set to women.

People here are well-behaved. Some people ask for extra food to give to their family. At the beginning, I can give extra to whoever ask me but this is just a second stop and it looks like our supply is getting low, so my team leader tell me not to give extra to anyone anymore.

I feel really bad when a little cute Chinese girl asking me for two boxes of milk and I have to say no to her. I wish I could just give her some money to buy some milk.

Some old Chinese ladies have some tricks to get more food. One old lady wears a hat the first time she comes to us. Then she goes back to the line again but this time she takes her hat off and thinks that no one recognizes her. When I am about to give food out, my team leader tell me she has one already. I do not recognize her. In fact, I do not recognize anyone because it is so busy that the only things I look are those sandwiches, boxes of milk and the plastic bag those homeless have with them.

Some Chinese women complain to me in Chinese with the question I am asking myself as well that why men get two sets but women get one set. Of course, I do not understand Chinese but I can tell from her physical gesture.

That question is answered when I raise my observation after we leave the spot that those people do not look like homeless to me, in particular women. My team leader explain that that is why she asked me to give out just one set to women but two set to men because most of men are homeless but women are not.

Ironically, before we arrive at the next stop, I ask my team leader if she ever have any bad experiences with those homeless. She says she was cursed by some homeless before but she tried to ignore and if the situation is getting too dangerous, she will just drive out of the spot.

Then I experience this situation myself at the Staten Island Ferry stop.

We are running out of food, so I am told to give out just one set to each person. Then this disabled man with a cane asks me for more food. I already give him 3 sandwiches and two boxes of milk. He says it is not enough, he is starving. But I say I am sorry but we still have more people to feed so that’s all I can give to him. He starts cursing me and stares at me like he wants to get physical fight with me. At one point, everyone is quiet and I am afraid that he will use a cane to hit me. Fortunately, the team leader steps in and gives him more food. She tries to explain to him that we are running out of food and that’s all we can do. He starts yelling and says, “You don’t have enough food because you give those god damn things to those god damn hundreds of Chinese people this why you do not have enough food for us.” My team leader does not respond. When we leave, he still looks pissed at me so I walk away and get back to the van.

At the point he is cursing me, I ask myself how should I respond?. In a normal circumstance, I would say something but this time I do not say anything because I tell myself I am here for volunteering and I expect these kinds of incidents will happen to me one day so patience might be the best virtue this time. Plus, I do not think I will get anything from putting a fight with him. At the best he would be in jail. At the worst I would be in a hospital and I am sure he would not have any money to pay my medical bill. So I let it go.

The last stop is at the Penn Station. Nicky and I are assigned to go down the Penn Station and announce that the Coalition for Homeless is upstairs so please go and get food.

I am very nervous because we have to walk around the Penn Station and literally yell that we are here so please go grab your food upstairs. Fortunately, this is a night time so there are not too many people here. We walk around the station and then when we see a group of homeless, we approach them and announce that the food is upstairs.

It is pretty difficult sometimes to tell who are homeless. We have to be careful because we do not want to approach the wrong people and offend them. But everything goes so well. When we come back to the van, all food is totally out. Our team leader says we do a very good job because a lot of homeless come to the van and get food.

We finish around 10 pm and we are starving so we grab dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant.

It is such a fun night. Although my night starts pretty rough, it smoothes out pretty well at the end. I will absolute do it again soon.

Tae Athikomvittaya