Page 22 - July ONLINE VERSION

Pay it Forward
By Corben Horton
Ever been down on your luck? Nearly all of us have
at one time or another. You miss your bus and run
late for your work; you get a flat tire and don’t have
the right tools to fix it; your short on cash and strug- Manhattan ranked 20/20 on their list with the cost of
gling to make ends meet. It’s in these times of need
that the little things people do for us mean the most.
Something as small as a warm meal or a couple dol-
lars can make your entire day.
You might be surprised to find that New York
City—the place of rat-filled subways, soaring sky-
scrapers, and pedestrians yelling “Ay, I’m walkin’
here!”— has a chain of some amazingly cheap
restaurants.
99¢ Fresh Pizza
For those of you who have been to New York City,
you know that the price of pizza isn’t cheap. Nypost.
com says here: “According to the pizza-delivery
platform Slice, the average price of a standard 18-
inch pie in NYC is $16.98, while a 12-inch specialty
version hovers at $19.23. In neighborhoods such as
the Lower East Side and the East Village, the price
of pizza has grown 7 percent from 2016 to 2017.” It
seems impossible that there could exist a place to
get a cheap slice of pizza—and yet it’s true. There
are several restaurants in NYC by the name of “99¢
Fresh Pizza” that sell pizza slices for a dollar.
While some might claim that although New York
City is expensive, surely this doesn’t extend beyond
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the participants did not have a long history of drug
the focal point of the Big Apple, right? Wrong. In an
article by Kiplinger.com that covered some of the
most expensive places to live in the United States,
living being 145.7% above the national average and
an unemployment rate of 16% out of a population of
1,628,701.
This makes the existence of these restaurants even
more spectacular. Pizza lovers around the world sa-
lute you, 99¢ Fresh Pizza, for making those delicious
slices cheap and available.
The Homeless
Person Dilemma
What do you do when you see a homeless person
holding a sign? You probably avoid their eyes, walk
past them as fast as you can, and try to forget about
the uncomfortable experience altogether. After all,
there’s nothing we can do, right?
Well, according to a CNN article about a recent
study in Canada, this may prove otherwise. Re-
searchers carefully selected participants in the age
range of 19-64 who had been homeless for an aver-
age of six months and gave those in the test group
approximately $5,700 in U.S. currency. They also
observed a control group which did not receive any
money but also met the same criteria as the test
group; the findings were astonishing.
Those who received the money were able to find
housing sooner than those who did not, their drug
and alcohol purchases decreased, and many of them
fulfilled desires they had possessed while previously
too poor to do so, such as fixing their car to have
reliable transportation to their job.
This has a major impact on how we think of home-
less people, as many believe that giving them money
would only yield negative results. Of course, it must
be clarified that the research also made sure that
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have the drive to open up any restaurants, nor do I
addiction and that they had relatively decent chances
of success if given the money.
So, should you still give money to that random guy
sitting on the street who looks like he was born
there? That’s for you to decide. However, the data
is in with regards to those who just happen to have
experienced a bit of bad luck, and helping them back
on their feet is highly possible.
Cheap Pizza
AND Helping the Homeless?
I know what you’re thinking: “Pizza, again? What’s
with this guy?” But hear me out! A Philadelphia man
named Mason Wartman left his office job to open a
unique restaurant. It’s a pizza place that implements
the idea of “pay it forward” by enabling customers
to purchase pizza slices for future customers. Mason
has them write whatever they wish on a sticky note
when they make the future purchase, and then he
sticks it on a wall where customers in need can come
in, grab the note, and exchange it for a free slice of
pizza. Crazy, right?!
The restaurant is called Rosa’s, and it’s working
miracles for the rising homeless population of Phila-
delphia. Mason’s work is truly inspiring, and it begs
the question of what entire corporations could do on
their own without the help of customers who “pay it
forward”?
“Takeaways?”
Do you mean
“takeout?”
I bet you’re wondering what you can do to help con-
tribute to the overall goodness in the world. I don’t
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think I could try and study every homeless person I
come across, so those options are out. However, with
that said, there are a few more options available.
Visit a nearby community center in your city. Ask
if there’s any upcoming social projects that you can
sign up for or any way you can donate.
The internet has also made finding places to donate
much easier, but that presents a new challenge: how
do you know which ones are going to produce the
most benefits? Utilize Google to find good charities
that share your personal interests. Five minutes or
less of research should be enough to tell you what
you need to know about the charity, and then you
can even check if they have a brick and mortar estab-
lishments near you.
If you want to go the extra mile, you can create
petitions for problems you see in your society and
encourage your fellow citizens to sign it so that you
can present it to your mayor or other governmental
leaders.
Feedingamerica.org is an organization which works
to provide food for the hungry in America. You can
donate online and it even allow you to fundraise and
volunteer in your community. If you know some-
one who could use this organization’s help, please
help them access the website as it has locations listed
where they can get food via Feeding America. This
really is a great organization, and it’s one that I rec-
ommend for anyone concerned with those who are
going hungry in our nation.
Corben Horton is an
undergraduate student at
Oklahoma State University
with a major in Creative
Writing.
He has self-published two
books and hopes to contin-
ue producing more in the
future.
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