The Fruit of the Spirit: "Love" with Michael Airhart, Founder of Taste For The Homeless

The Servant Leader Coaches Bible Study

Michael Airhart began his life’s work as an eight-year-old in a single-parent apartment in the projects on the South Side of Chicago. He just didn’t know it yet.It was there he learned to cook and he learned to sew. Most importantly, he learned to provide for himself, two brothers and others in the city’s largest public housing development, Altgeld Gardens. “Many of the parents were on drugs or just disappeared, so we had to survive,” recalls Michael, now 49. It was largely due to the young resourceful chef that many of them did. “Everyone in the projects knew about me. Everyone knew what I was capable of, that I cared for everyone. As a kid, I was the one who was serving food to the kids. I was the one knocking on project doors asking for a can of tomato sauce, spaghetti, sugar, whatever. I would actually put a meal together for my friends.” Today, he is still known on the street as someone who cares. Seven days a week. “It’s all I know,” he adds. “I can’t drive by a homeless person and not stop. I am going to have food in my truck. I will always have clothes, always have shoes, socks, T shirts, pants, underwear. I’m gonna make them over.” Six days a week, he’s out on the streets by 7 a.m. dispensing hot food from 15 or so pans out of his van. On some days, the clothes he hands out include Air Jordans, donated shoes he receives from all over the world through his Jordans for the Homeless program. Soon he will unveil his new gift, Chicago’s first food truck for the homeless, complete with a shower in the back. Michael gives a message on Love. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/chefranjohn/support