I just got back from a trip to the supermarket where I was approached by a couple of high school girls at the entrance on the way in. They asked if I'd be willing to donate toiletries (toilet paper, toothpaste, shampoos, etc.) for a couple of local charities serving the homeless population of my city and county.

I'm usually pretty open to these kinds of things. I'm not rich but I'm not living paycheck to paycheck and, to be blunt, it's a pretty low impact way to gain some "feel good" points about trying to help others who are down on their luck and need some help.

The girls handed me a piece of paper that had a list of items they were interested in and the name of the two charities. One thing immediately stood out: one charity was set up specifically to help homeless women and was named accordingly. The other one's name was more ambiguous and I couldn't tell who they were set up to help.

So I looked it up. The second charity was set up to help "at-risk teens" and homeless youth.

Anyone who's been reading this sub for the last week or so may remember a post referencing 1 out of 4 homeless people being women, with the unreferenced remaining 3 out of 4 being the unimportant and disposable men, hardly worthy of mentioning in the article even if they form the majority of the homeless population.

On the way to my car I stopped and asked the girls if they knew the demographics of the charities they were gathering items for, to which they replied yes, for women and at-risk teens. I then asked if they knew that about three quarters of the homeless population would receive no benefit from any of the volunteering they were doing that day. I finally said that I thought it unfair to ignore homeless men as their reasons for homelessness mirror the minority segments' (mental health issues, medical bankruptcies) and may also be more unique (divorce bankruptcies, lack of government assistance to homeless men vs. homeless women and children).

I don't expect to have had any real lasting impact but perhaps to have sowed a seed or two of realization and understanding that homelessness affects every demographic and perhaps everyone should be given the assistance, not just a select few.

Note: I'm not sure about the correct use of flair, but it's there.