11-Year-Old Helps Restaurants, Homeless Shelters Work Together
We love heartwarming, uplifting stories, and this story about an 11-year-old Miami Shores boy who asked state legislators to make it easier for restaurants to donate leftover food to homeless shelters certainly fits the heartwarming/uplifting bill.
The sixth-grader is being credited for inspiring a bill that will allow restaurants and hotels to donate leftover food to places like homeless shelters and not face legal liabilities.Another shining example of how our addiction to litigation hurts us. But this little boy took some action, and now a bill that would protect restaurants against litigation, called the Florida Restaurants Lending a Helping Hand Act, has just one more step to go before the full Senate will vote on it. Restaurants are happy, homeless shelters are happy, and hopefully more hungry people will be able to eat. It's really a win-win situation.For years, many eateries and other places have simply thrown the food away, rather than face a lawsuit if someone got sick.
''I kind of used my social studies teacher's advice,'' said Jack, a sixth-grader at Ransom Everglades School. ``She told us to make a difference.''
Jack, with the help of his attorney dad, Jeff Davis, got in touch with a friend, Miami attorney Stephen Marino. Marino, a board member of the Florida Justice Association, a statewide association of consumer advocates, brought Jack's idea up a few days later during lunch with State Rep. Ari Porth, the bill's House sponsor.
''I've never been contacted by someone so young about an idea for a bill,'' Porth said. ``I think it's highly unusual and very impressive.''
It all started one summer morning after breakfast as Jack and his family finished eating at a buffet in Chattanooga, Tenn.
He was one of the last at the buffet line -- a typical spread of biscuits, bacon and eggs -- and a manager told the family to eat as much as they could.
Jack asked why? The manager told him the rest would be thrown away.
''He explained to me if they gave the food to a homeless shelter they could be sued for sickness or food poisoning,'' Jack said.
Student, 11, helping to get food to homeless [Miami Herald]
