A San Jose Mercury News article dated May 7, 2008, by Patty Fisher was titled: Millionaire birthday boy parties with homeless.
According to the article Taj Chahal, who immigrated to the US from India at age 7 with his family, he said that as he nears age 30, he started thinking about his life. Mr. Chahal was in college when his 16 year old brother started a business and he dropped out to partner with his younger sibling. Chahal's future plans include more philanthropy work in providing things like scholarships and, yes, a bigger birthday bash next year.
He choose Martha's Kitchen as a charity to help after watching a You Tube video and being impressed with the "soup kitchens" work on behalf of homeless and hungry. Chahal had a meal catered and tepidly helped serve the party goers. In addition to the kitchen being decorated with festive party stuff like balloons, each attendee received a gift bag that included more food and practical items such as towels.
My experiences eating at soup kitchens is, events like this are a welcome change of pace for homeless people. Stale bread and outdated pastries are standard offerings, making restaurant garlic bread and bakery fresh cake a real treat. Personally, I could do without the balloons, party blowers, hats and such. When I have participated, I mentally calculate the cost of the extras and think about overburdened landfills. Other homeless enjoy such things, but most often the stuff is quickly discarded, often landing on streets, rather than in trash bins.
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