If you asked Jorge Munoz what he does, he’d probably tell you that he’s a school bus driver. That’s definitely one truth but doesn’t really tell you much about what he’s doing the rest of the time. For over five years, every day, he’s come home, rested for ten minutes, had a coffee and then gets to work on job number two. A job he puts not only a lot of time into but also a large percentage of his own earnings.
In his small apartment, he sets about cooking up a storm with some help from family and friends. Then he heads out to a street corner by a subway stop in New York to dish out 120-140 dinners to whoever needs them. He’s been doing it so long he says the people he meets feel like part of his family now.
“When I started there was just like, eight guys. Two weeks later there was twenty four.”
He says it kept growing but there’s been sharp jumps in numbers in the last six months and he says that that’s not due to word of mouth anymore, it’s the economy. The economy of Jorge’s own life is that he earns about $700 dollars a week and spends about half of that on food, drinks and packaging. Why does he do it? “God and my mom. She taught me to share…and when you see them smile, that’s the way I get paid.” But others have paid testament to his efforts too, receiving a Citizens Medal from Barack Obama in 2010 and named a CNN Hero in 2009.
