“Could You Spare Some Change?” How Do You React?

I was heading up to Oregon and made a stop at a fast food restaurant to go to the bathroom and get a drink. As I walked to the door, a young couple sat in the shade on the side of the building. The man caught my eye and asked, “Could you spare some change?”

I have a policy to never give money directly when people ask me for it, but that doesn’t mean I’m not willing to help out. In this instance I asked, “Are you hungry? Would you like some food?”

They both said “yes” and after asking what they would like, I went in and purchased the food that they wanted. It ended up costing about $10 for the two meals I purchased.

While I in no way regretted making the purchase, as I continued my drive I started to think if there could be a better way to provide food for those in need when I travel. I’m finding that I am coming across more and more couples like this as I travel. I began to wonder if there was a way that I could provide more food with better nutrition than a fast food meal if I used some of my acquired couponing skills.

The more I thought about it, the more this seems like a good idea. Not only could I create a small food package to pass out to anyone I happened to come across while I traveled who needed it, the packages would be a good emergency food supply that would be worth having in the car in their own right. The food package would also allow anyone that received it to eat the food when they wanted to and not right away as they had to with the fast food meals.

The problem, of course, would be coming up with a food package that contained fairly healthy food that could also last a fair period of time without going bad and wasn’t overly heavy so that they could easily be taken wherever the people might go. This is a list of the foods I came up with:

Granola bars
Jerky
Nuts
Trail mix
Dried fruit / fruit leathers
Apple sauce

Those were the first thoughts that came to my mind although I am sure there are others (feel free to leave comments on quality food I could add to this package that I didn’t list). I think with a bit of patience and keeping an eye out for corresponding coupons, I should be able to create a food package like this for a few dollars. Do you think that a dual purpose food package (emergency food supply and for giving to those that are requesting food) is worthwhile and how would you go about creating something like this?

Jeffrey Strain

Jeffrey strain is a freelance author, his work has appeared at The Street.com and seekingalpha.com. In addition to having authored thousands of articles, Jeffrey is a former resident of Japan, former owner of Savingadvice.com and a professional digital nomad.