Originally Posted by Newspaperguy;11346261I
strongly discourage using soup kitchens when you're on tour. The reason is one of ethics. These facilities are for those who are impoverished and have no other way to get a meal. Cycle tourists do not fall into that category. A cycle tourist who takes a meal at these places is leaving a little less food for those who truly need them.
+100
World does not owe you a living, or a meal. I hate to sound harsh, but if you're able-bodied enough to go on a bike tour, you're able bodied enough to get a job, save up for a tour, and pay your own way. Or find gainful employment along the way. That doesn't mean that we all aren't occasionally the beneficiaries of the kindness of strangers -- especially in an emergency, or bad weather -- but planning a bike vacation around eating at soup kitchens seems like a terribly misplaced set of values.
I read somewhere a few months ago about some websites for folks who travel around the country in RV's, camping out, and working temp jobs around the country. They share tips on where the best temp jobs are (seasonal warehouse work, seasonal farm work, etc.). That's a little easier to do if you are in an RV because you can pull up stakes and move hundreds of miles in a day to get to the next place where a job is, and you can also "camp out" for extended periods of time in more comfortable surroundings. But you might try tapping into this community; sorry I can't remember what they call themselves.