Meals on the Streets....

Meals….

~Meals On the Streets~

The Reality of what it is truly like

The empty void of Hunger;

One of the things that go quickly by the wayside when your home no

longer has those walls around the sides and no longer

 with the roof overhead, are meals….

Meals are not something that is often encountered

on the streets, not in any regular sense, anyway. 

And “meals” on the streets are different than real meals.

 On the streets, a “meal” turns into anything that fills you,

and fills that empty void of your stomach…. Crumbs here, a few pieces there,

 or whatever you can find, is a meal. Eating becomes inconsistent, at best,

very sporadic-- getting pieces and slivers here and there along the way...

 meals have long since taken leave, and “Meals” themselves take

 on a whole new meaning when you are on the streets. Whatever you

 have to dine on, whether it be some bread, a piece of fruit, sometimes

not even a whole fruit, but a slice or two, or perhaps a wedge of apple or

 orange, a yogurt, a piece of cheese... these become 'meals'.

And each by themselves are separate meals. 

But nothing close to what a real meal consists of, much

 less the 3 meals a day, or the 5 smaller meals

 that have become more popular of late….that “we are supposed to have”.

 That never happens, not when you do not have a real home to store, prepare and

cook real food. You are left to whatever is around you… and already prepared.

Which, in and of itself poses a host of other problems on its own…..

 having to rely on the food prepared by others, you are

 putting your faith, health, and life, literally, in their hands and can only

hope they practice good hygiene and wash their hands as they are required

to do, but that rarely is the case. I have been on the receiving end of several

dozens, if not hundreds, of cases of food poisoning because of the ill preparation

 in the way the food was handled and made.  

So the ones, like myself, who have to fully rely on pre-made foods prepared

 by others, it makes life on the streets that much harder to bare…… the very little nutrition you have at your disposal, turns toxic after you ingest it because some employee decides to use the bathroom then return to work without washing their hands, or immersed in cleaning, then prepare foods after handling the dirty mop water and broom/mop handles without washing their hands. They give absolutely no thought if or how their actions will affect anyone else. They do not see any need to wash their hands, since

 they don’t “look” dirty, so they must be clean. 

 My system has been torn up, time and again because of the actions of others, 

or rather the lack of actions when preparing food for others, to the point of most

 food now causes the unbearable, excruciating pain and all the

wonderful accruements that accompany it.

So eating becomes more of a challenge in every regard.

Living on the streets, especially when it is by the illegal actions of a landlord that forced you out,

 becomes even more limited and stretched thinner and thinner, where resources that

you need are nowhere to be found.  Having to eat “whatever” and prepared by “whoever” takes

 a hard toll on your body, sometimes in devastating and catastrophic ways that we are

forced to suffer through and endure.

Compounded even more when you do not have ready access to a restroom, and then when you

 do have access, you are on stage, with a full on audience, judging and commenting

 on your very presence and instead of offering any kind of help, they just add to the misery

 you are forced to contend with. Your every action, every breath,

every step is always on public display.

It is challenging enough having to deal with the hand life has dealt you,

but then when you have to be subjected to people’s ugliness on top of that, it makes

being present the worst experience imaginable.