Are You Hungry

[Music]

are you hungry

in march of 2015 i mustered up the

strength and the courage to say those

three words

to a young homeless man i’d met who was

living on the streets

that sentence changed everything

you see i was 44 years old and i can

honestly say that on that day in 2015

i’d hit rock bottom personally i was

broken

and when i looked into the eyes of this

young homeless man later i would learn

that his name was jared

i could see just how hungry he was

in many senses of the word

that look was familiar to me because i

had been jared

as kids who were always hungry

my sisters and i got really creative

when it came to finding ways to feed

ourselves

growing up i remember planning

sleepovers with friends at their houses

on the weekends because i knew that the

chances of their family sitting down to

a meal were much greater than my chances

at home

as a teenager i learned how to dumpster

dive

and if you don’t know what dumpster

diving is it’s exactly what it sounds

like it is

in the wee hours of the morning i would

climb into dumpsters behind grocery

stores right here in spokane

and i would retrieve bread and pastries

and bring it home to my family

finding food was my only focus every day

and as a kid that’s no way

to grow up

i also learned that with poverty

hunger is not the only problem

my mom’s boyfriend’s physically and

mentally abusing her

family members drinking and downing

pills

inability to maintain jobs

evictions homelessness

and so much more

because of poverty

and i had a front row seat to all of it

i trusted no one

so i find myself at the age of 44 in

2015 i’m living in medical lake not too

far from here in a trailer

i’m way behind on my rent i’m avoiding

my landlord every single day

my power’s been shut off i don’t have a

phone or i don’t have a car i don’t have

a job

my marriage is on the rocks

i was bone deep tired

and i was angry at myself

i remember standing up in that trailer

that day and screaming with tears

rolling down my face

i’m not going out like this

but i truly felt at the age of 44 i was

running out of time

i had about 10 dollars to my name

and i decided to get on the bus and head

into spokane and i was going to go to

spokane community college and see if

there’s any way that i could go back to

school

now the thought of returning

back to school after being a high school

dropout for 28 years

was nothing i was excited about

i hadn’t opened a book in nearly three

decades

i was terrified

but i was out

of options

the bus brought me into spokane

and it went to the bus plaza which is

literally

two blocks from this building

that’s where all the buses converge and

i had about 12 minutes until my next bus

took me out to the community college

so i thought you know what i’m gonna go

upstairs to the convenience store i’m

gonna get a snack

and i was headed into the convenience

store that’s where i saw jared sitting

right outside the store

and two things stood out to me that day

about jared one he looked to be about my

oldest son’s age and that really

bothered me

and two just the condition that he was

in

his hair was matted his teeth were

busted up he was filthy from head to toe

he didn’t have shoes on his feet and it

was march it was not a time to be

barefoot

something in that moment happened i’d

seen jared around town on other days

but on that day in that moment i heard a

voice in my head and in my heart

and it simply asked me how many times is

this man going to be in front of you and

you’re not going to do anything

and i’m telling you guys it was not my

best day but i felt like i had nothing

to lose

i didn’t know what to say to him

for the first time in my life i was

putting my stuff aside and helping

someone else

who was struggling more than i was i

didn’t think that was possible

so i just blurted out the first thing

that came to mind and i said i asked him

i said are you hungry

and i remember clearly he was staring at

the ground and he just kind of snapped

out of he looked at me he said i’m

starving

i said let’s go in the store and i’m

going to get you whatever you want and

so i got him some chips i remember he

got funyuns and a

mountain dew

i got some donuts and a coffee and i

spent the next seven or eight minutes

just getting to know this complete

stranger

i learned that jared had been dropped

off in spokane he didn’t have friends he

didn’t have family in town he was not

acclimating well to the streets he was

getting beat up a lot

and he shared with me that the night

before we had met

someone had stolen his backpack while he

slept

he said rick i don’t have much but

everything that i did own was in that

backpack

and his shoes were tied to the backpack

so that explained why he was barefoot

i knew that i had to do something

this meeting with him was

transformational

it let me know in my heart that i could

maybe help someone even though i had

nothing that was a brand new concept to

me

so i blurted out if you can meet me back

here in two days in the same spot at

noon

i will bring you a backpack with

everything that you lost

i didn’t know how i was going to do it

but i was not going to leave this man

and say well enjoy your funyuns have a

good life you know

and so he agreed to do that and i went

on my way i went to spokane community

college and i took the assessment test

that day

and i scored really low which i knew i

probably would

and the people there said you know what

rick it’s okay people have scored lower

and i was like excuse me

you mean i’m not going to be the worst

student in the history of the

educational system

and that was a glimmer of hope that i

was not expecting to get that day and so

i went home

a little skip in my step and i got on

facebook and i had about three or four

hundred friends and i said hey you guys

i’m a 44 year old college student isn’t

that cool

and by the way i met this man named

jared and he really needs our help

filling a backpack can you help me fill

one backpack

and i went to bed i didn’t think

anything of it i woke up and my

messenger inbox was as full as it had

ever been i’ve never even seen it that

full since and i never saw it full

before that

hundreds of people were reaching out to

me wanting to give me things for this

one backpack

people were offering tents sleeping bags

uh food items toiletries socks gift

cards

you name it people were wanting to give

this stuff to me so i got online and i

looked at the post and

it had been liked over a thousand times

and shared all over spokane while i

slept

actually in 24 hours we filled 25

backpacks full

and so in two days obviously i couldn’t

i was meeting with jared i couldn’t give

him 25 backpacks

so my kids and my friends and me went

out and we started handing out backpacks

on the streets of spokane and that’s

when giving backpacks was born

that was that was 7 000 backpacks ago

[Applause]

oh

i love this little guy

and that meeting with jared was

it gave me hope it gave me a purpose

i knew that i could help people even

though i felt like i wasn’t even worthy

or capable of it and it also gave me

direction while i was at school that i

didn’t

necessarily have i knew i wanted to help

somebody but i didn’t know what that

meant

and so i breezed through two years at

spokane community college i was on honor

roll the entire time

there was times in school where i was

living in my van and i was doing my

homework with a flashlight and inside of

me i never had quit in me

and in my entire life that’s all i did

was quit things so i knew something was

different

my my brain was awake

and

i graduated with a transfer degree and

on graduation day it was very special my

son graduated from spokane falls

community college on the same

day

yeah we

we got to graduate on the same day in

the same arena these two men changing

the face of their family really

and during the celebration that day my

son pulled me aside and he said dad you

know with your grades

and your backpack program you could go

to gonzaga

and i remember laughing at him and

saying yeah why don’t i try for yale and

harvard while i’m at it

and then i went home and i thought you

know what i’m trying to teach my son to

reach for the stars but am i only

willing to go so far

so the next day i sat down and i applied

to go to gonzaga university i had to

borrow money to do it

part of the process you have to write a

short essay kind of explaining why it

would be a good fit

and if there was ever an intentional

letter that i’ve ever written in my life

it was this letter

i laid it all out

i explained the things that i’m

explaining to you guys tonight and i

basically ended the letter by saying

this broke poor hungry boy who’s been in

spokane his entire life is now a man

he’s standing at your door and he’s

trying to change the cycle of poverty

and his family i hope you open your door

and about three weeks later i got a

beautiful manila envelope

with a letter that basically said rick

we’ve been waiting for you

here’s 34 000 to get started

[Applause]

and i was off and running i earned my

bachelor’s degree in two years in

communication studies it was me in a sea

of seven thousand twenty-year-olds

and i would not change it

for a minute i would never change it

and again around graduation time

something special happened mike rowe

some of you may recognize that name

he’s the host of dirty jobs

he also had a show on facebook called

returning the favor

and he would travel the country and

surprise people who were doing good

things in their community and that’s

exactly what he did to me

he brought me into the mccarthy athletic

center

i didn’t know this was all happening he

filled it with people

and uh

cheerleaders the band the mascot

it was amazing and he presented me with

a check to pay off my tuition at gonzaga

life was great every day was better than

the day before and i don’t know how to

explain it and i didn’t know how to

explain it to my friends and my family

i know they thought i was going through

a midlife crisis i call it a midlife

awakening

and now

you know since so what happened was the

pandemic came to town well it came

didn’t just come to spokane

and we were all kind of stuck inside

right things were going great with

giving backpacks but this outreach

program and so i was not able to go out

and do the outreach work

so i was stuck at home like everybody

else and i thought you know what maybe i

can get online and raise some money for

some local restaurants that were

struggling

and then with that money we can buy full

price meals and have those meals sent

over to shelters and feed people who are

experiencing food insecurities

i was trying to raise 200 the first

night to get 20 pizzas and to make a

long story short in 112

videos we raised over 250 000 in spokane

that group is called spokane corn team

you may have heard of us

we’re now close to a half a million

dollars 33 000 strong members rolling up

their sleeves saying how can i be of

assistance

and we’ve done so much

my hunger today is no longer for food

it’s to live a full life of purpose

helping people

and if you’re in this audience if you’re

watching this ted talk and you’ve ever

felt like i felt if you’ve ever had

those questions and wondered is you are

you living your purpose

especially if you’ve ever wondered do i

have enough time to find my purpose

i am here tonight to remind you that it

is absolutely possible to find your

purpose

at any age

and it’s waiting right outside those

doors

so let me ask you

are you hungry

yeah

thank you

you