The Plan:

Toss a mattress in a van and travel the country interviewing members of the homeless population. Each face, sandwich, and story, will be documented extensively in Fifty Sandwiches. There is an example posted below and plenty on the blog. Throughout the journey, the experience as a whole will be updated on Instagram and the Fifty Sandwiches blog.

The goal is to close the gap between perception and reality, collecting unique splices of life along the way. I will be traveling city to city, offering to take homeless people out for a free meal in exchange for an interview. Well, more of just a casual chat between strangers rather than interviews. As each chat progresses, these talks will evolve into a dynamic collection of life struggles, stories, and philosophies from a population that is rarely given a voice.

Each of our perspectives is formed through a lifelong road of challenges and obstacles experienced first-hand. With that said, the goal is not only to unveil these unheard perspectives, but to capture the story and explanations behind them. If I am given the advice Always trust your gut I want to know the journey that led to this realization. What happened when you didnt trust your gut? What would have happened if you had? How have you changed since then? This is more about presenting remarkable life journeys of the less heard and less fortunate than broadcasting generic or universal convictions. See some of the interviews so far.

What is this for?

This project hopes to give a collective face to an issue too often perceived as a social nuisance. Homelessness is often seen as an inevitable result in the social food chain. By gathering a collective range of perspectives and life stories, Fifty Sandwiches aims to further humanize the homeless. This book will inspire public awareness, using personal anecdotes and challenges to foster the realization that homeless people are not defined by their living situations. This is no remedy to homelessness, rather a method to raise awareness. As with any social issue, the first step to finding a solution is through recognition and understanding.

Why the name Fifty Sandwiches?

I plan to interview as many people as possible to guarantee an authentic selection of stories and experiences that accurately portray the true diversity among the homeless population. As of now, the number of people I interview will be at least one hundred, but 185 Sandwiches just doesn’t have that ring to it!

Secondly, it is important to understand that the people in this book will only have two things in common with one another: they ate a sandwich, and they are homeless. Outside of that, their lifes struggles, loves, experiences, and aspirations are all vastly distinct. Naming the book Fifty Homeless People would deduce the people in it, undermining the entire objective.

However, sandwiches are not in need of being seen as anything more than a sandwich: an assortment of lunch food layered methodically. Frankly, it does not matter to me or anyone else if the pulled-pork sandwich is grouped together with a ham and cheese pita. If a few aspiring chefs are angered to find that Fifty Sandwiches is about properly representing homeless people then they will have to learn a valuable and ironic lesson that both books and homeless people should not be judged by their cover.

Here is an example piece of what I have collected so far in preparation! I strongly encourage you to check out the blog for more examplesor click on the photos above. Please feel free tocontact meor comment below with any questions or thoughts about the project or myself! I am also happy to support any other KS projects I can so let me know if you have a cool project!

Attached below is only part one of three parts in my talk with Matthew. I will be posting more interviews as updates as the projects persists so stay tuned!