Today I go up later than I like to on a Sunday. I woke up at 7:30 but then fell back to sleep around 9 until 10 am! I finally arose to a beautiful sunny day in Paris. As I was drying myself after my cold shower (see this is the subliminal messaging I was talking about in my first blog) I was looking at the empty offices of the building on the other side of the street.
Those of you who have known me for a long time may remember that 15 years ago I helped a homeless woman get off the street and back into employment merely by providing her with shelter in the quite small attic room which we had in our building at the time. (Don't worry this is not a self congratulatory piece about what a wonderful person I am). I remember that she told me that just having a warm private space for the night without having to fear being robbed or molested, made all the difference to her state of mind and capacity to find work.
After some quick research, there are at least 5,000 homeless people in Paris. At the same time there is 18 million m2 of office space which by definition is empty every night and on weekends (see the link to my first paragraph?). That's 3,600 m2 per homeless person even if 1% of that space was made available to homeless people at night and on the weekends that would be a generous 36m2 per person. Having a roof over your head, access to a toilet and running water makes a huge difference to your physical state, to your hygiene and to your sense of belonging to humanity. Is this such a crazy idea, I don't think so. Are there some practical difficulties, probably but none of them are insurmountable. Surely in the present environment where capitalism and business are seen as contributing to injustice in society this would be an ideal (and useful) PR exercise. I suggest setting up the Bureau du Coeur (non French readers can look up Resto du Coeur an effort to bring surplus restaurant food to the homeless).
No menu today, however here is what we bought in our local "food stree" (the list is in french as we are talking about food):
Poissonnerie:
Those of you who have known me for a long time may remember that 15 years ago I helped a homeless woman get off the street and back into employment merely by providing her with shelter in the quite small attic room which we had in our building at the time. (Don't worry this is not a self congratulatory piece about what a wonderful person I am). I remember that she told me that just having a warm private space for the night without having to fear being robbed or molested, made all the difference to her state of mind and capacity to find work.
After some quick research, there are at least 5,000 homeless people in Paris. At the same time there is 18 million m2 of office space which by definition is empty every night and on weekends (see the link to my first paragraph?). That's 3,600 m2 per homeless person even if 1% of that space was made available to homeless people at night and on the weekends that would be a generous 36m2 per person. Having a roof over your head, access to a toilet and running water makes a huge difference to your physical state, to your hygiene and to your sense of belonging to humanity. Is this such a crazy idea, I don't think so. Are there some practical difficulties, probably but none of them are insurmountable. Surely in the present environment where capitalism and business are seen as contributing to injustice in society this would be an ideal (and useful) PR exercise. I suggest setting up the Bureau du Coeur (non French readers can look up Resto du Coeur an effort to bring surplus restaurant food to the homeless).
No menu today, however here is what we bought in our local "food stree" (the list is in french as we are talking about food):
Poissonnerie:
- Fillets de turbot
- Tarama maison
- Pave de saumon sauvage
Boucher:
- Osso buco
- Paté de lapin maison
- Saucisson aux truffes
- Chorizo piquant
- Jambon "kintao"
Fromager:
- Figou (chevre avec une figue à l l'interieur)
- Roquefort
- Tome de chevre au orties
- Gouda au truffes
- Mimolette
- Brie au poivre
- Crottin fermier
- Ravioles (fresh from the river - private joke for my children)
I think Fianna bought some vegetables and salad but I have no room left!
I am really enjoying this blog, Fabien and I especially loved this entry as helping the homeless is something I am passionate about. Our homeless population in Los Angeles is largest in the US. How do the homeless react to the leftover food? There is a lot of concern here by homeless people that the food is tainted in some way. Is there a process that is followed there to check the food or are there standards for what can be accepted?
ReplyDeleteHi Paige, I may have simplified. I'm pretty sure at some point they were getting food from restaurants bu now it's based on surplus food from a variety of sources including private food drives, supermarket donations etc. (here is a link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restaurants_du_C%C5%93ur)
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