00:00Here's everything that you need in life in this book bag.
00:04It's basically everything a homeless person needs.
00:07Everything.
00:08Bathing, food, soap, wipes, food, food, razor.
00:13That's what I really need.
00:14It's about solutions. It's not just about the backpack.
00:17But it's also about the backpack.
00:19I was homeless.
00:29And I knew what I needed when I was on the street.
00:33And I knew what I wanted when I was on the street.
00:36So that's how we figured out everything that we needed to put into it.
00:39We also listened to the people that were on the streets.
00:42Jason has been coming here and working in Times Square.
00:51And just seeing the number of homeless every day.
00:54And seeing them.
00:55We both started coming out and giving food and blankets.
00:57And then we just felt like we weren't doing enough.
01:00And we felt we wanted to be doing more.
01:02Right now we're going to go head over to our storage unit.
01:05Where we make all the backpacks.
01:07So this section right over here is all the food that we put in the backpacks.
01:11There's about 45 to 50 different items depending on the season.
01:14Like for winter there's gloves, there's Mylar blankets.
01:28Once the city shut down, we realized that we needed to jump into gear.
01:31And the truth of the matter is, among the most vulnerable were the homeless.
01:35It was the elderly, the people with pre-existing conditions, and the homeless.
01:40The thing was, the only group that wasn't being taken care of was the homeless.
01:43They sort of got ignored.
01:45They already felt invisible as it was.
01:47So we thought we needed to jump in.
01:48And so we did.
01:49COVID has shown us anything.
01:50We're all one or two paychecks away from ending up in a shelter.
01:53Or on the street.
01:54Or losing our homes.
01:55Or losing our jobs.
01:56Or having lost all that.
01:58And not enough people are out there doing this.
02:01I've got hand sanitizer in here.
02:04Some first aid stuff.
02:05A flashlight.
02:06And I'll show you what I've got on the other end.
02:09It's socks.
02:10It's snacks.
02:11Is that stuff you can use?
02:13I'll take a couple of snacks.
02:15I'm going to leave the bag on you.
02:16Oh, okay.
02:17I'll take the whole thing.
02:21I'm pretty new to New York.
02:23And I was living in a shelter when I first got here.
02:25And then living on the street.
02:26So I was kind of already oriented towards being out here.
02:29And being in the environment.
02:31So when I met these guys, I fell in love with it the first time.
02:34So sometimes I see people I know and recognize.
02:38And it's meaningful in that way.
02:41The number one complaint I think of of people who are out here is that they feel invisible.
02:45They literally feel like nobody sees them.
02:47Or if they do see them, that they're literally less than.
02:51And we want people to realize, like you said, this is someone's mother.
02:55Someone's son.
02:56Someone's neighbor.
02:58These are human beings.
02:59And we will sit down with them and figure out what their needs are.
03:02How can we help them?
03:03It's not just about the backpack anymore.
03:05It's about the services and the solutions.
03:07And that's the most important part.
03:09And it's also just reminding them that they're not alone.
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