Love Day '09?

Ok, I'm dreaming up next steps.  Here is my idea - Love Day '09.  We could rally people to make 10 lunches of their own (or 4 lunches or 32 lunches or whatever), meet up before lunch time on Valentine's Day, and pass out the lunches to the less fortunate.  Why not show some love on Valentine's Day?  

It wouldn't have to be exclusive to Kansas City.  If people were interested in doing it other places, that would be cool too.  

Let me know if you are interested - joelrthomason@gmail.com or 10lunches@gmail.com or just post a comment to this blog post.

- Joel

Taking Shape

The 10 Lunches idea is starting to take shape little by little. The idea is this - offer attainable weekly "service challenges." It's kind of like a Deal of the Day website, only it's serving other people instead of buying cheap things. For instance, every week, new challenges would be posted to the site. These challenges would be similar to "make 10 lunches and hand them out to those in need." They could be as simple as "next time you get coffee pay for the person behind you" to as complicated as "raise money, get on a city bus and give away $5 to every person on the bus." You could call these random acts of kindness. The object is to build a culture of love in the community in which people live. The ultimate goal is for these acts to be directed at the less fortunate, those who really need it.

Then people would be able to post their stories about what happened when they took the challenge. They could also submit their ideas for future challenges.

What do you think? I want your input. Be constructively critical, not just encouraging. Post a comment here on the blog so I know what you're thinking.

- Joel

Scholarship Application

I was alerted by a friend, Kelsey Hency, to apply for a Social Innovation Scholarship offered by Ramit Sethi, an entrepreneur who wants to encourage young entrepreneurs to engage in service-oriented projects.  That fits what 10 Lunches is and may become, so today I turned in the application.  It was done on the fly, in the midst of my current job search, so I am not expecting to win.  Still, if 10 Lunches is chosen, Sethi would donate $2500 to the development of 10 Lunches and also add his brain power to this budding idea.  

Read more about the scholarship here.

Joel

Lunch Contents

Some people have asked, "What were in the lunches that you made?"  So here is a list of the contents:

* Turkey sandwich

* Granola bar

* Apple

* Pair of gloves

It's nothing groundbreaking, but for someone who has doesn't know where their next meal is coming from, it could be a feast.  Here was my shopping list at the grocery store:

* 2 lbs. of turkey

* 1 loaf of wheat bread (contains 20 slices, perfect for 10 sandwiches)

* 1 box of granola bars, 10 ct.

* 10 golden delicious apples

* 2 packages of 6 "jersey gloves" (the simple knit gloves)

The total cost was $30 (that doesn't include the brown paper sacks and plastic sandwich bags I already had).  There are so many commercial slogans that could apply here....so easy a caveman could do it....10 lunches, $30.  Creatively serving 10 people, priceless.

It's simple.  It's fun.  You should do it.  Or you should think of your own unique way to serve the less fortunate and do that!

- Joel

Post Secrets

Scared © Post Secret

Post Secret is "a community art project where people mail in their secrets on one side of a postcard."  Check out this week's Post Secret edition (or just look at the image above).  If you look at the 3rd postcard down you'll notice a secret very applicable to 10 Lunches.  Be sure to check this out before Sunday (January 18th) when the next wave of postcards is posted and the current wave is deleted.  

Thanks to Nicole Whittington for giving me the heads up.

- Joel

National Coalition for the Homeless

Check out this ad for the National Coalition for the Homeless.  The music playing in the background is from Radiohead.

- Joel

What is 10 Lunches?

The Scout © Joel Thomason

On a typical Friday night in Kansas City, an ordinary guy headed downtown to celebrate his best friend's 26th birthday.  Parking along Grand Boulevard, he couldn't help but notice the homeless man standing outside his car staring in.  As the ordinary guy got out of his car, the man approached him asking for whatever financial assistance he could spare.  The ordinary guy offered what money he had in his wallet (2 dollars, not much), and the two conversed as they walked up the street.  What poured out was an incredibly sad, and unfortunately common these days, story of the financial downturn driving the man into life on the street.  As the two men parted ways, they shook hands; the ordinary guy couldn't help but notice the icy cold temperature of the other man's hands.

This image of icy cold hands stuck with the ordinary guy, so, on January 5, 2009, he made a trip back to downtown Kansas City with a backpack full of ten lunches, each sack stuffed with a pair of gloves. His goal: pass out the lunches to those he encountered on the street with an apparent need. Along the way, a reporter looking for a story spotted him and decided to follow along. The next day the resulting article spotlighting this ordinary guy's act of service made it onto the front page of Kansas City Star. (Read the article here) The article generated an enormous response and thus 10 Lunches was born.

Why this particular story, this particular action, resonates with people may lie in it's simplicity. Make 10 lunches. Go find people that need them. And give them away. Anyone can do that. The key, however, is not the lunches but the idea that regular, everyday people can make a profound difference in the lives of others through simple acts of love and service. The key is for individuals to get creative with the the resources they have been given as they use them to serve other people.

To call 10 Lunches anything more than an idea at this point would be presumptuous. The hope, however, is that this idea grows arms and legs and hands and feet and begins to move in ways currently unimaginable. The evolution of this idea remains to be seen, yet the 10 Lunches vision is clear: mobilize a coalition of individuals around the world creatively serving those in need in their communities.

This blog is a work in progress. Like the 10 Lunches concept, the blog is grounded in the idea that it's better to do something than nothing. At the moment, we hope that it will serve as an avenue to communicate the development of this budding entity we call 10 Lunches. More importantly, we hope this blog can be a platform for individuals to engage one another in conversation in order to generate and implement creative ideas for serving the needs of individuals in their communities.

The bottom line is this: serving people is fun. Let's do it together.

- Joel