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Feeding the homeless in Philadelphia started for Darryl Johnson with one bag of sandwiches and a man who knew his name.
Our member Darryl Johnson was handing out sandwiches in Center City about twenty years ago when a man pulled back a blanket and said hello by name. They had gone to school together. Darryl's son was standing right next to him.
That night is why Beloved Brothers Inc. exists. Darryl and his friends had gone out once, as a church thing, and by the end of it none of them wanted it to be a one-time trip. They started going back every quarter.
Going back every quarter is not the same as running a nonprofit, and the paperwork came later. Every time Darryl went to a council member for grant money he heard the same answer: get your 501(c)(3) first. He got it done in 2016, which makes this the organization's tenth year.
The financial side of running one was familiar ground for him. Darryl spent his career as finance director for the Child Care Information Services program across Philadelphia with Caring People Alliance. What he had to learn was how to walk into a room and get people to see a vision well enough to fund it.
The vision he is proudest of came out of a walk through the City Hall courtyard. Now in its fifth year, the annual dinner seats guests at tables, hands them menus, and has volunteers in black serving the plates. There are donated clothes, a barber cutting hair, and city homelessness offices set up with tables to connect people to services.
By the third year of that dinner, the name of the work changed. A man came up to shake Darryl's hand and told him he was no longer homeless but was still hungry, because his budget ran short after medication. Darryl started saying homeless and hungry after that.
That dinner is also where Darryl brings the next generation in. The youth who come out serve plates rather than watch. As Darryl puts it, the people the city walks past are the invisible people, and for one day they are told they are seen.
CHAPTERS:
0:00 - Meet Darryl Johnson
3:04 - From One Night to a Nonprofit
7:08 - Feeding the Homeless at City Hall
11:03 - Not Homeless, But Hungry
GUEST LINKS:
Beloved Brothers Inc.: https://www.belovedbrosinc.org/
Email Darryl: belovedbros@gmail.com
ABOUT PEOPLE AT PYRAMID:
People at Pyramid is the Pyramid Club's member spotlight podcast. Every episode, host Vince Quinn sits down with one of our members to find out who they are, what they build, and what makes them worth knowing. Stories worth telling, from the people who make up this place.
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