I live in Colorado Springs, and do a lot of the same things that you describe above. In the last few years, our city has become very hostile to the homeless, passing ordinances banning camping on public property and panhandling. They have also harassed groups that distribute food in a similar manner to what happened to you. One group in particular that I worked with handed out pizza in a public park, the police came with city code enforcement and and told us we would have to purchase a park use permit or be fined and possibly arrested. Since we could not afford the permits, we ended up moving to the parking lot of a church. I would be interested in learning more about your ministry, as well as this building that the city provided for food distribution. One of our pastors is meeting with the mayor in the next few weeks and it could be an interesting suggestion. Thank you for what you do and God Bless.

Pastor FedEx

This line is really standing out to me. It goes for any and all of our service projects. It has me wondering if we like to phrase our “projects” as “problems to solve” to absolve us of seeing the situation as neighbors to be loved.