*Donate food items. There are lots of local organizations that will take food donations. They will then distribute those food items as needed. This is safest and easiest for you and these organizations will know the best ways to get the food to those most in need. There are lots of foods that are good to donate but canned food and a smaller portion of healthy, fresh food is best. Ask your local organization for what they need most.
*Support organizations that distribute food. You can help those churches and shelters by doing more than just donating food too. They also need money to stay open and pay the people that work there. They often also need volunteers to help distribute the food. Ask them when you donate your food items about other ways that you can help.
*Take food directly to those in need. You don’t need to wait for a food shelter in order to distribute food items to people that you know are in need. Buy healthy food that doesn’t require anything to be prepared and take it to homeless people that you see in your daily activities. For example, buy a bunch of bananas and hand them out to the homeless people downtown.
*Get your employer involved. Many businesses will do donation matching. Talk to your boss about getting your business involved if they aren’t already. This will mean that any money or goods you do donate will be matched by your employer, effectively doubling the amount of good that you do.
*Fight stereotypes. In more and more cities, you’re seeing laws put in place that actually ban feeding the homeless. The idea is that if they’re hungry, they’ll be more willing to work hard to get a job, stop taking drugs, and get back on their own two feet. However, the stereotype that homeless people are lazy people who just want to have fun and abuse every substance they can get their hands on is just that: a stereotype. People who are homeless may have many reasons for being so, most of those reasons being very complex and requiring more than just motivation to overcome. Starving these people will not help and you need to make sure people in your community understand that. Do your best to educate people and prevent this from happening.