More than 30 cities nationwide have restrictions that limit feeding the homeless, a trend that the National Coalition for the Homeless refers to as part of a wider effort of "criminalizing homelessness and pushing the problem out of sight."
In one such city San Antonio, Texas the owner of Chow Train, a nonprofit food truck that aims to feed the needy of San Antonio with "gourmet, restaurant quality and healthy food," is using religious liberty to fight such restrictions.
On April 7, Joan Cheever, the founder of Chow Train, was reportedly fined $2,000 and charged with a Class C misdemeanor for feeding the homeless outside of her food truck.
While recounting the story to The Washington Post's Terrence McCoy, Cheever recalled that she was approached by two police officers as she was handing out food. The issue, according to the police, is that Cheever wasn't in her food truck, and therefore was outside the boundaries of her food handler's license.
Cheever didn't buy into it, according to The Washington Post, because such a restriction would also criminalize pizza delivery boys. She believes they just don't want her feeding the homeless.
In the wake of her fine, Cheever is looking to turn the tables on the city of San Antonio, arguing that it is her religious right to feed the homeless, whether it's from her food truck or not.
You cant just turn away from your neighbor when theyre in need. We dont do that in San Antonio, Cheever told San Antonio's NBC News 4.
According to The Huffington Post's Arthur Delaney, Cheever plans to lean on the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, as well as Texas' own state version of the law to argue that her rights of free exercise of religion have been infringed.
"This is about every church group or individual who wants to serve a meal," Cheever told The Washington Post. "Its terrible to criminalize the poor, but its just as bad to say to the good Samaritans that youre a criminal too. The Bible says, When I was hungry, you fed me, and I take that seriously. This is the way I pray, and well go to court on this.
This isn't the first time San Antonio has gotten press for punishing people wanting to feed the homeless. In 2010, a report by San Antonio's KENS 5 Eyewitness News found that numerous religious groups, such as Genesis Ministries, were also feeling the pressure of restrictions against feeding or aiding the homeless.
"The Bible tells us to feed the hungry and to clothe the naked, and that's what we want to do," Dan Armstrong, a volunteer at Genesis Ministries, told KENS 5. "But we want to follow the laws of the land. But at the same time, we don't want to have to step back and not do what we are called to do."
Cheever's invocation of RFRA in her fight to feed the homeless could be a conversation changer. In recent weeks, states like Indiana and Arkansas have made headlines because their attempts to pass religious liberty bills have been interpreted as veiled attempts at institutionalizing bigotry towards homosexuals.
"Throughout America, Christians have spoken out and raised more than a million dollars to defend the freedom of co-religionists to decline to serve food at same-sex-wedding receptions," The Atlantic's Conor Friedersdorf wrote in reaction to Cheever's cause. "While there has been heated debate about whether or not their faith truly requires such abstentions, there can be no doubt that the Christian imperative to feed the hungry is both explicit in the Gospel and central to Jesus' teachings."
Now, efforts to help an Indiana Pizzaria that said it would decline to cater a gay wedding isn't the only Go Fund Me account on the block related to the RFRA. In the wake of the citation, Chow Train has raised more than $9,000 in six days from supporters who wish to aid Cheever in "her ongoing efforts to continue her mission of feeding the homeless, the working poor and the 'newly homeless' at disaster sites across the country."
In one such city San Antonio, Texas the owner of Chow Train, a nonprofit food truck that aims to feed the needy of San Antonio with "gourmet, restaurant quality and healthy food," is using religious liberty to fight such restrictions.
On April 7, Joan Cheever, the founder of Chow Train, was reportedly fined $2,000 and charged with a Class C misdemeanor for feeding the homeless outside of her food truck.
While recounting the story to The Washington Post's Terrence McCoy, Cheever recalled that she was approached by two police officers as she was handing out food. The issue, according to the police, is that Cheever wasn't in her food truck, and therefore was outside the boundaries of her food handler's license.
Cheever didn't buy into it, according to The Washington Post, because such a restriction would also criminalize pizza delivery boys. She believes they just don't want her feeding the homeless.
In the wake of her fine, Cheever is looking to turn the tables on the city of San Antonio, arguing that it is her religious right to feed the homeless, whether it's from her food truck or not.
You cant just turn away from your neighbor when theyre in need. We dont do that in San Antonio, Cheever told San Antonio's NBC News 4.
According to The Huffington Post's Arthur Delaney, Cheever plans to lean on the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, as well as Texas' own state version of the law to argue that her rights of free exercise of religion have been infringed.
"This is about every church group or individual who wants to serve a meal," Cheever told The Washington Post. "Its terrible to criminalize the poor, but its just as bad to say to the good Samaritans that youre a criminal too. The Bible says, When I was hungry, you fed me, and I take that seriously. This is the way I pray, and well go to court on this.
This isn't the first time San Antonio has gotten press for punishing people wanting to feed the homeless. In 2010, a report by San Antonio's KENS 5 Eyewitness News found that numerous religious groups, such as Genesis Ministries, were also feeling the pressure of restrictions against feeding or aiding the homeless.
"The Bible tells us to feed the hungry and to clothe the naked, and that's what we want to do," Dan Armstrong, a volunteer at Genesis Ministries, told KENS 5. "But we want to follow the laws of the land. But at the same time, we don't want to have to step back and not do what we are called to do."
Cheever's invocation of RFRA in her fight to feed the homeless could be a conversation changer. In recent weeks, states like Indiana and Arkansas have made headlines because their attempts to pass religious liberty bills have been interpreted as veiled attempts at institutionalizing bigotry towards homosexuals.
"Throughout America, Christians have spoken out and raised more than a million dollars to defend the freedom of co-religionists to decline to serve food at same-sex-wedding receptions," The Atlantic's Conor Friedersdorf wrote in reaction to Cheever's cause. "While there has been heated debate about whether or not their faith truly requires such abstentions, there can be no doubt that the Christian imperative to feed the hungry is both explicit in the Gospel and central to Jesus' teachings."
Now, efforts to help an Indiana Pizzaria that said it would decline to cater a gay wedding isn't the only Go Fund Me account on the block related to the RFRA. In the wake of the citation, Chow Train has raised more than $9,000 in six days from supporters who wish to aid Cheever in "her ongoing efforts to continue her mission of feeding the homeless, the working poor and the 'newly homeless' at disaster sites across the country."
