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