Joan Cheever has been serving free food to the homeless of San Antonio, Texas, every Tuesday for the past six years. She prepares the food in The Chowtrain, her commercially licensed food truck, transfers it to catering equipment approved by the health department and drives it in her personal truck, for space reasons, to four locations in the city.
Over the years, she has encountered several police officers, who have been friendly and grown used to seeing Cheever on her route as she offers them a meal if they’d like.
Then on the 7th of April, she was handed a ticket for not serving food out of her licensed vehicle. Cheever was cited for “failing to adhere to long-standing regulations that are in place to ensure public health and safety,” according to the city of San Antonio.
Since that night, Cheever has obtained a lawyer and refused to pay the $2,000 fine. She has even successfully served food on the two Tuesdays since then, in the same manner she always has.
This is just the latest in what appears to be a nationwide crackdown on helping the homeless. People are being fined and even arrested for providing meals and blankets to our society's most vulnerable citizens. We need to show respect and gratitude to those who sincerely help the homeless, instead of treating them like criminals.
