'Please Don't Feed The Poor' Campaign Catching On

August 5, 1998 | Issue 34•01

WASHINGTON, DC—Big-city mayors across the U.S. are hailing Congress' recently passed, $550 million "Please Don't Feed The Poor" public-awareness campaign as "a major step in the right direction." Said New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani: "When well-meaning but misguided souls give money or food to the poor, it takes them out of their natural dumpster-scavenging patterns and upsets their delicate ecosystem." L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan agreed, saying, "It's important for people to know that feeding the poor ultimately does them more harm than good."