Pizza Restaurant's Message To Homeless Man Digging Through Dumpster Goes Viral

Aug 15, 2018 by apost team

For years, he'd battled homelessness and food insecurity by sifting through the trash at his local Little Caesar's. Employees couldn't fix everything, but also knew they had to use the resources they had to help.

Food insecurity is the lack of consistent access to affordable food. Millions of people around America are food-insecure, and a great number of those are also struggling with homelessness, at a time when many companies discard good food and houses sit empty if they can't be sold. 

apost.com

One man spent years surviving homelessness by sneaking food from a Little Caesar's trash bin. The employees had long been aware of him and wanted to help, but embarrassment or fear of retaliation seemed to always scare him away. Understanding that he was uncomfortable being approached, employees wracked their brains for a workaround - and eventually found one.

The note they left on the window for him has since gone viral. It reads: "To the person going through our trash for their next meal, you're a human being and worth more than a meal from the dumpster. Please come in during operating hours for a couple of slices of hot pizza and a cup of water at no charge. No questions asked."

Free pizza and a place to sit indoors for a couple hours doesn't fix everything, but these employees knew they had one thing they could use to help - their business's own kitchen.

And that isn't the only way they've helped!

This same Little Caesar's makes a point to donate every night's leftover pizzas. Now, instead of sending perfectly good food to gather flies in a garbage bin, they've chosen instead to look at the resources they have and use them to help the people in their community. It seems obvious, doesn't it? And yet even small helpful actions like this are enough to go viral - what if every restaurant owner who saw the note did the same?

In the US, thousands of tons of consumer-ready food go to waste every day, while businesses watch millions of people go hungry. It's acts of kindness like these that remind us all of our neighbors deserve food and respect. How can your business or community do better? Let us know your thoughts and pass this article on!