Feed the Poor? Not in Philadelphia City Parks

Every Saturday night from May through October, volunteers working with Chosen 300 Ministries, a religious group, set up cloth-covered tables in a park alongside Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway and serve cornbread, grilled tilapia, and peach cobbler to the homeless and the hungry. This year they may be forced to stop.

On March 15, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter announced a ban on serving food in city parks unless it’s at a city-sanctioned event or the guests are family members. Brian Jenkins, founder of Chosen 300, says the new policies are a ploy to remove a crowd considered to be an eyesore from areas frequented by tourists. In announcing the ban, Nutter said the new rules have nothing to do with that: “It’s not about who is on the parkway but how it is used.” The mayor said he wanted to “increase the health, safety, [and] dignity” of the homeless, eliminating the risk of illness or injury associated with waiting for food amid bad weather and traffic.