how I came to hand out cheez-its at bus stops

My husband and I host a "community group." In Christianese, community group means a few folks who all go to the same church that meet together every week and talk. Ours is specifically for "those outside the mainstream" i.e., not "churchy."
We got tired of talking about helping people and decided that every other week we'd go out and actually help people. We had lots of ideas and you'd think if 6 people wanted to go out and give their time once a week it would be a piece of cake.
It wasn't.
I checked online volunteer webboards, I called hospices, and of course our church. Bupkis.
Sure, they needed help during the day but all of us work during the day. Do needs stop at 5pm?
I was discouraged. I felt like a crappy leader. My leads had all gone to pot.

Then while at church on Sunday I had a realization: "Why the hell do we need a organization to tell us where to help? We can go commando!"

I thought back to the days of riding the bus. No one rides the bus because they have leisure time and extra money. You ride the bus because you're down and out, disinfranchised, or in need. You ride the bus to make ends meet. I remembered how much it sucked after a long day to sit at the busstop, tired and hungry, feeling forgotten. Bus riders need love, I thought.
So that was my plan-- snacks for the bus stop!
I don't think my group was crazy about the idea. But I had to go with it.
In the end, it was only the spouse and I who brought over 100 juices and bags of cheez-its to First St and Santa Clara Ave the crossroads of the VTA system.
I was nervous about it, "what if people are insulted?" I feared.

But it was a total success, all of our snacks were gone in about an hour. We chatted with people, and everyone was so nice. We said that they could take as much as they wanted and we saw them go to the other side of the street and share it with their friends. The cops came up and encouraged us, so did the VTA security guard.
It felt good not to have an agenda or rules.
Jesus was all about food. And that was what made it easy to be nice to people-- the food. When I used to walk downtown, I mean what do you say to a total stranger who looks down-and-out? But it was easy to strike up a conversation when you say "Hi! It's free, you want a drink? Take what you want."

It wouldn't have been as good if we were an organization, with matching shirts and a card table with our logo on it.