Inquirer Editorial: Feeding the homeless better for everyone inside

Proposed Health Department regulations on outdoor food handouts in Philadelphia should be the catalyst for more community and church-based volunteer groups to move indoors with their laudable efforts to aid the homeless.

The new rules would require permits and kitchen inspections for any group feeding more than a few people in an outdoor setting, such as at the weekly feedings along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Center City.

The city's top health official, Deputy Mayor Donald F. Schwarz, insists that his main objective is food safety - and not coming up with just another fee to fatten the city's treasury.

In fact, the permits under review over the next month by the city Board of Health would be what Schwarz calls "soft regulations," carrying no fees. The city also hopes to offer training in safe food-handling practices for groups that hope to continue providing meals on the city streets.

But Schwarz is candid that he also hopes to use the regulation as a means to prompt more dialogue with volunteer groups on the critical issue of moving indoors.

Health officials recently met with more than a dozen groups that provide meals to promote the idea that they could partner with indoor meal programs operating in and around Center City. Groups such as the Broad Street Ministry, with a facility on South Broad Street, say they could add meals if other groups helped.

This whole debate actually goes back several years, as it became apparent to both city boosters and some homeless advocates that it makes sense on many levels to provide meals indoors.

In a church or community center, there's not only a chance to serve a meal with more dignity, but also to provide the counseling that the city's homeless need in the hope of getting their lives back on track.

And, yes, moving the Parkway handouts indoors would remove them from the museum district - a venue where vast public and private investments are being made to promote the city's tourism economy. There's no need to apologize for trying to meet the twin public-policy goals of making the city attractive to visitors and also showing compassion to the homeless.

The city has never resorted to ordering the outdoor feedings shut down, but it has every right to assure that groups providing the handouts take steps to assure against food-borne illness.

With the new regulations, Schwarz may be inviting a confrontation with some advocates for the homeless who choose not to comply, and then face fines. That would be an odd twist, though - shifting gears into making the food handouts an act of civil disobedience, rather than acts of charity.

It would be far better for these groups to continue their good works, but to try to do so by bringing their meals in out of the cold.