In the US there are over 500,000 people who are homeless on any given night. The homeless are the disenfranchised of our communities. They include evicted families, battered women, veterans, suddenly jobless individuals and their families, mentally ill individuals, drug addicts, and abused youth living on the street, among others. Many in our communities are just a day away from being homeless if they lose their jobs or experience a sudden catastrophic illness or injury.

Close to one billion people – one-eighth of the world’s population, live in hunger. In the US, 50 million people suffer from hunger, and one in four children goes to bed hungry each night. Clearly, the homeless are in need of food just to survive. But hunger beyond homelessness is more broadly prevalent in our communities than we are aware. Low income working families, students in our community colleges, elderly on fixed incomes and living alone, and families and individuals losing food subsidies through government cuts in aid all suffer from lack of nutritious food and from subsequent related health issues. It is a tragic public health phenomenon in our wealthy country.

The numbers are staggering, but any support for food and shelter, no matter how small, is meaningful. The Darwin Project supports several food pantries and meal programs in our region, and homeless shelters with a focus on the city of Boston.

“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”
Mother Teresa

Another group of disenfranchised in our society which is dramatically overlooked is prisoners, a great many of whom are in prison because of the ravages of poverty. Without education, counseling and prison reform in general, the cycle of poverty and incarceration will continue.

The Darwin Project provides financial support to local programs which aid the disenfranchised who cannot support themselves, or pull themselves out of poverty and distress alone. Each year we donate to food pantries, homeless shelters and services for the homeless, day care and other services for homeless children, and educational and reintroduction services for prisoners. We also get directly involved in hands on assistance as much as we are able.

Although we lean toward provision of direct care and sustenance for individuals, be they human or four footed, we also believe it is important to support radical and socially positive human rights and environmental organizations which look to protect all of our rights to a life of no harm. These include, for example: Greenpeace, Defenders of Wildlife, and Amnesty International and American Civil Liberties Union.