COLBY MARTIN: In recent years, the homelessness crisis has steadily grown throughout the Los Angeles area. As of 2020, the population of those who identify as homeless in the city of L.A. has totaled upwards of 42,000, with numbers still being recalculated today due to the impacts brought about by the pandemic. To combat this, Matthew Tsai, a first year journalism major here at Annenberg, created Meaningful Meals, a movement dedicated to providing food to the homeless community surrounding USC, building relationships upon meaningful conversations along the way. Matthew, thank you so much for coming. I really appreciate it. How’s it going, man?
MATTHEW TSAI: I’m doing well. Thank you for having me, man. Yeah, so
COLBY MARTIN: it’s what you’re doing with meaningful meals. First of all, can you tell me what inspired you to really create this organization in the first place?
MATTHEW TSAI: Yeah, it’s not the most, you know, Hollywood story. In the beginning, I realized I just always had so many left ex-wife. So me and my roommate, we would just go to seeds and like, stack up on sandwiches for the week if we got like, lazy and didn’t want to go out. And so like, as we found, I was like, Oh, you’re getting my money’s worth. And I was just telling everyone I knew about it, and I told one of my friends and I was like, Oh, I was actually thinking of like using those wipes to give to the homeless. I was like, Oh, wow, that makes me feel a little worse. And I was like, That is a really good idea. I should. I should do that. So I got a couple of my friends to just one day it was like 12 burritos wandering out of campus. We looked really stupid, had no idea where we were going, gave them that. And then since then, every week we kind of just been doing that. It’s grown a lot and it’s been just like really a blessing to see how people will continue to give in and stuff like that.
COLBY MARTIN: So was there any inspiration from like other groups? Because I know you’ve talked about how there are other groups on campus that do that, but they I guess more so publicize it than you do with meaningful meals. But did you were you aware of those at the beginning or did you just really spearhead this with no thought whatsoever? And then you realized after the thought, Wow, I’m not alone in this, but I’m doing something. I’m a freshman.
MATTHEW TSAI: Mm-Hmm. Yeah. So in the beginning, I think it was just like, Oh, this sounds like a nice thing to do is a good idea. But I think the more we got out there, the more we interacted with some of the homeless homies, which we call them the homies. Because, you know, they’re our friends. We talk to them all the time like something I realized is like, they’re just normal people who want to talk to people like no one is going to talk to them. No one’s going to give them the time of day or, you know, something like that. So something that I feel is maybe even more important than the meals. It’s just the interaction showing that we care, you know, like asking what their name is like, um, like that. And so I think the inspiration now, even though it maybe didn’t start out that way, is to really just show them that there are people there who who see them through who love them. You know, they’re I think homeless people are often the most forgotten. You know, there’s so many around us and we’re in this bubble. And I think showing that love and care is really what drives it now for me. Yeah, it’s a really great.
COLBY MARTIN: What you’re doing is very inspirational and hopefully other people can hear about this message and catch on. But where else can they find you personally?
MATTHEW TSAI: Um, Thursdays at four p.m. and Fridays at 11:30 a.m. You’ll probably see me in TCC with a big blue wagon, maybe carrying 60 or 65 meals. And there you can catch me there. Ask me some questions we’d always love, help or any other donations. So, yeah, awesome.
COLBY MARTIN: Thank you so much, Matthew, for coming in. I really appreciate it. Appreciate it.