Don't feed the animals

If you came across someone on the street that had not had anything to eat for several days would you give that person some food? Sadly, feeding the homeless has been banned in major cities all over America and while other cities that have not banned it outright have put so many requirements on those that want to feed the homeless (acquiring expensive permits, taking food preparation courses, etc.) that feeding the homeless has become "out of reach" for most average people.

Homeless shelters all over the nation are turning people away each night because they have no more room. There are many homeless people that are lucky just to make it through each night alive during the winter.

Philadelphia is imposing the ban on all outdoor feedings of large numbers of people on city parkland, including Love Park and the Ben Franklin Parkway, where it is not uncommon for outreach groups to offer free food.

Members of food activist group Food Not Bombs have been arrested in Orlando for giving free food to groups of homeless people in a downtown park in defiance of a city ordinance.

In Houston, a Christian group was recently banned from distributing food to the homeless, and they were told that they probably would not be granted a permit to do so in the future even if they applied for one. The city shut down their "Feed a Friend" effort.

Dallas has also adopted a law which greatly restricts the ability of individuals and ministries to feed the homeless. A Dallas-area ministry is suing the city over a food ordinance that restricts the group from giving meals to the needy. In the court filing, the ministry leaders argue that their Christian faith requires them to share meals with the homeless (as Jesus reputedly did!) and that the requirement that even churches and charities provide toilets, sinks, trained staff and consent of the city keeps them from doing so.

A few years ago, Las Vegas became the first major U.S. city to specifically pass a law banning the feeding of homeless people. Las Vegas, whose homeless population has doubled in the past decade to about 12,000 people in and around the city, joins several other cities across the country that have adopted or considered ordinances limiting the distribution of charitable meals in parks. Most have restricted the time and place of such handouts, hoping to discourage homeless people from congregating and, in the view of officials, ruining efforts to beautify downtowns and neighborhoods.

New York City has banned all food donations to government-run homeless shelters because they are concerned that the donated food will not be "nutritious" enough!