For Karen Olson, a life-changing encounter on the streets of New York City was the catalyst to help homeless families nationwide.
In November 1982, marketing executive Karen Olson was hurrying past Manhattan’s Grand Central Station when she spotted an old woman sitting on a crate, huddled over her belongings: two bags at her feet. She’d seen the woman before, but this time, seized by impulse, she dashed into a shop, bought a sandwich and an orange juice, and gave them to the woman, who soon identified herself as Millie, a widow without a home.
When Olson told her two young sons about meeting Millie that day, they wanted to bring sandwiches to the homeless as well. Over the next two years, the family made numerous sandwich runs to Manhattan, passing out food and drink to homeless people, whom they came to know by name.
Hospitality and Housing
After learning that large numbers of the homeless, including families, were living in her own New Jersey community, Olson stepped up her efforts to help them. From the start, she ran into preconceived notions about people living without an address. As she told American Essence: “Homelessness is a stigma. Most people think the word is synonymous with the man lying on a subway train or a woman leaning into a trash can to find something to eat. But that’s only the visible people you see who are homeless. You don’t see the homeless families who are out of sight, because they’re going to be living in shelters or in their cars.”
