TONY (written while he was in jail)
“See, when I was growing up [ages 5-7], we had what people call a soup line. Kids and parents were lined up for blocks and when I say blocks, I mean 10-12 blocks, literally. We had to have stamps for bread: 1/2 a stamp for a loaf and one stamp for so-called butter, which was really lard).
“Me and the crew would steal food from the navy to feed my family and crew. There was five kids in my crew: Pete (the milk man), Dave (the meat man), Jimmy (the pick pocket), Larry (the clothing man) and me, Tony. I didn’t have a specialty; I took everything I could get my hands on. If I could sell it, I took it.”
Homeless Man Speaks 
February 19, 2007 at 11:40 pm
How easy it is to forget what people have to go through to survive. Even though things have improved for many, stealing to eat is still reality for a lot of people in this country today, especially in the big cities.
Thought you guys would be interested in this story from the Globe & Mail. I’ll include a paragraph or two and then put the web link at the end.
$70-million for homeless unspent, study says
Despite need, cash earmarked for shelters, soup kitchens was withheld, report says
DEAN BEEBY
Canadian Press
OTTAWA — More than $70-million in federal money earmarked for the homeless was never spent, despite an urgent need across the country, an internal study says.
The draft report, obtained under the Access to Information Act, found no satisfactory explanation for why government officials appeared to withhold available cash from Canada’s soup kitchens and emergency shelters.
“There are substantial amounts of funding ($70M+) that were available but not spent,” says the document. “If the need was as large as described . . . then it would seem that the expenditures should be closer to actual budget allocations. The evaluation team was unable to determine the rationale for this discrepancy.”
The apparent shortfall occurred in the National Homelessness Initiative, a seven-year program begun in 1999 to respond to a perceived surge in the number of Canadians living on the streets.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070219.HOMELESS19/TPStory/National