My daughter keeps a box of cereal (granola) bars in her car to give to the homeless asking for help at street corners. I always thought that was a good idea, because it addresses an immediate need of the poor without giving those who are just trying to score some cash money for they drug/drinking desires. (It's not that I'm against the homeless drinking or getting high; it's just that I want my spare booze/smoke money used for my booze and smoke, not their's.)
But I was recently reading these forums and I had a thought. What about giving the homeless one of the wood gas burning stoves that you can make? It would give them a bit of flexibility on their choices of food preparation, without tying them to having to buy gasoline, white gas, or alcohol. They can pick up twigs almost anywhere. And being cheap, I might be able to make a large difference in their lives without much cost to mine.
So, time for some questions:
1) Do you think a small wood burning stove would help the homeless? (Why or why not?)
2) I'm imagining that with the stove would come instructions on how to use it (and how to build it, too). What is a good link to usage as well as building instructions that I could give to a homeless person which they could use to instruct themselves on how to use the stove? (I guess this also means what would be a good and easy to use stove for the homeless.)