#47 | September 10 - 24, 1998  

For advice on how to find food in these difficult times, the eXile called an expert-Cynthia Baron, Assistant Editor of Spare Change, a Boston-baed newspaper written and edited by the homeless, for the homeless.

eXile: Hello, we were wondering if you could help us. We're calling from a newspaper in Moscow, which is in the middle of a financial crisis. May of our readers will soon be homeless and foraging for food. Can you tell s a little bit about the best ways of finding food in urban areas?

Spare Change:Well, obviously you'll be going through the trash, you know. That's where you get all your food. And from handouts.

eXile: Anyplace in particular people should look for trash.

Spare Change: One of the first things you should do when you become homeless is learn the trash collection schedules around town. You want to be in the areas where people are going to put out the most garbage, and those are the places where people have put it out to be collected the next day. You can find a lot of good stuff that way. Also, one of the best places to look for stuff is in the dumpsters behind industrial areas. Big companies tend to put out a lot of good trash. Then, of course, and I don't know whether they have this over there, but there are places which give out free meals. You ought to know where they are. Here in Boston we got a lot of nice places. There are some which give out lunch and dinner, some that just give out dinner, some give out breakfast, lunch and dinner, some give out just breakfast. And there are places that just give out breakfast and lunch.

eXile: Anything else?

Spare Change: Yes. One thing every homeless person knows is that restaurants have to throw away a lot of food every night. So what you do is learn the closing times of all the restaurants in the area and go up to them and ask them for handouts just as they're leaving.

eXile: Sounds like you can get a lot of good meals that way.

Spare Change: Sure, sometimes. Sometimes people get beat up doing that, though.

eXile: Does anything grow naturally, any natural sources of food in the city environment?

Spare Change: No. It's all trash and handouts.

eXile: A lot of our readers are people who are going to be homeless for the first time. Some of them were pretty well off up until very recently. Do you have any advice that might help them get through those first tough days?

Spare Change: Well...don't get drunk. I mean, that's really the key thing. (calling out) Marcie, what do you think, what advice would you give people who haven't been homeless yet? What? (into phone) Yeah, she says don't get drunk, too. I don't know if people over there drink.

eXile: A little.

Spare Change: Tell them not to. It just makes things worse.