Omnivore - Random pics: sandwich experimentation, hunger, and homelessness
It’s 17 degrees. Of course, you can sleep on the street.
Here are a few random snapshots from the last week or so.
January is usually a big month at the gym. People resolve to work out and eat right. And maybe their bitterness at needing to do so prompts them to try to ruin other people’s resolutions. This pile of fast-food coupons was on the back of the water fountain at LA Fitness on Jan. 3. Unfortunately, there were no Popeyes coupons.
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I’ve been turning leftovers into sandwiches recently and this has been my definite favorite: charred roasted pork tenderloin, roasted turnips, arugula, red bell pepper, and mayo mixed with Sriracha. The Toufayan flat bread from Kroger was less than ideal, but the sandwich otherwise was a great tribute to the bitterness and miniscule spark of sweetness that have come to characterize the holidays.
Speaking of the holidays, this was the scene beneath the Bell Street bridge Jan 2, when the temperature was 29 degrees. I counted about 40 people. When I stopped to take the picture, several men rushed at me to ask for food. When I explained I didn’t have any, they read me the riot act for invading their privacy. I apologized. Without wielding my iPhone camera, I stopped again on Jan. 6 when it was only 17 degrees. There were even more people sleeping under piles of rags.
On any given night in Atlanta, 10,000 people are homeless. Our city has the nation’s highest number of children living in poverty. Before resorting to the blameful rhetoric of Sean Hannity and friends, consider that 40- to 60-percent of homeless people hold jobs. Is it not a little bit humbling to realize that the world’s richest nation is home to a class of poor people that has completely outgrown its former, relative invisibility?
Skip a meal this week and send the savings to the Atlanta Community Food Bank.