A perfect example of corporate compassion

love it. we can sit around talking about making change for a while.... but eventually we've just got to get out there and make things happen.

only problem is now i am craving pizza...

I applaud the spirit in which this act of giving was done (my account of it is off Boris' blog post over yonder) and am glad to hear that people enjoyed it, so I'm struggling with this feeling of visceral distaste I have when I think about what happened. Maybe I'm a completionist as opposed to an incrementalist so I can't help but think that it's not a solution at all. Maybe I've spent too much time in school thinking about social change. Or maybe I just don't like pizza. But there is something that strikes me as not 100% awesome. (Admittedly, when I heard about this being done, I heard comments about there being pictures of the event on Flickr - which made me sickest of all.)

Perhaps it's because I had the experience of carrying a tray load of sandwiches around downtown Toronto trying to find someone who looked like they needed a free sandwich, which brought home all these assumptions that I had about what I was doing and who I was doing it for. What does it mean when I have expectations of people being "grateful" for being in the position of having something to give? Am I assuming that food is their most pressing issue, and that helping them solve it with this one action is the cure for what ails them at this moment?

It's great that people go out and did something, and it's a nice thing to do - no argument there. Not everything has to be about the long-term, and I am aware that I have a lifetime membership to the Party Poopers' club. Maybe I'll come out with you guys next time and get to know some of the dudes and dudettes at Pigeon Park. The act of charity is indeed an experience, but I suppose everyone will walk away from it with a different conclusion.

I once had an opportunity to hear the CEO of the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society speak to my class, and she expressed her disgust at something published in a newspaper about "Top 10 tips for dumpster-diving." I expressed my opinion that it was done in irony, not as a direct affront or disagreement with the fact that dumpster diving should not be a necessary activity, but to show solidarity with the challenges that one might be faced with if they are food insecure. Maybe this is just another instance of someone not being in on the joke or the true statement of whatever is trying to be said.

only just checked back into changeeverything today, and read your comments.

I think I actually get where you're coming from.  Offering pizza is a short-term, one-off, not a long lasting solution. I've noticed in the past year, there has been an increasing number of one-off initiatives, and I sometimes wonder, "but will the parties involved also put in the hard work to achieve long term political change"?

Having said that, any impulse to do something decent, something human, gets my thumbs up, even if the act is muddied with complicated motivations.  Speaking personally, my own experience in one-off attempts have unequivocably changed me, "incrementally" into someone who is increasingly putting efforts into "completion" oriented  action.

nancy (aka money coach)http://www.nancyzimmerman.comhttp://www.yourmoneybydesign.com