“Paparazzi For Good” Cameras Paid to Catch Average Folks in Acts of Kindness - www.goodnewsnetwork.com

“Paparazzi For Good” Cameras Paid to Catch Average Folks in Acts of Kindness

by Terry Turner - Mar 8, 2016

A sausage-maker is getting paparazzi to refocus their cameras away from celebrities to the real stars of this world — people who do good for others.

Amateur photographers, like you, can also get paid the big bucks for snapshots – earning $500 for capturing the best weekly picture of someone committing an act of kindness.

Jimmy Dean launched “Paparazzi For Good” to pay professional celebrity photographers their going rate to capture images of everyday people helping others.

Professional photographer Giles Harrison captures shots of a man who cleans his local beach and a chef who hands out food to the homeless. The company will use the images in ads splashed across magazines that that mainly cover the rich and famous such as US Weekly and People.

“Looking back on the pictures I took today it fills me with a sense of passion, a sense of purpose,” the paparazzo says of his change of pace assignment.

Paparazzi For Good, part of Jimmy Dean’s “Shine it Forward” campaign, was extended to the general public last Friday and the company says it will choose the best photo of the week and pay $500 for the submission.

You can post your pictures of people doing good to their website, or just post on social media with the hashtag #ShineOnPics.

Photos so far include images of a man who runs a horse rescue operation, people collecting used medical equipment to donate to others, and a Boy Scout simply changing a flat tire for a friend’s parents.

Chef Wins Reality Show and Uses Money To Feed Chicago Homeless - www.goodnewsnetwork.org

Chef Wins Reality Show and Uses Money To Feed Chicago Homeless

By McKinley Corbley - Mar 6, 2016

Thanks to his winning a recent reality television show, Quentin Love can open his big heart to all the big appetites in the Chicago homeless community.

Every Monday for the last two years, Love’s restaurant, the Turkey Chop Grill, would close for business and fire up their grills for anyone in the city in need of a hot meal. With the help of a weekly team of volunteers, Love has paid nearly $2,000 a month out of pocket for over 60,000 free meals.

The compassionate business model, however, was not sustainable enough to keep going on its own.

That’s when Guy Fieri called with an invitation to compete for a $36,000 prize on the Food Network reality television show Guy’s Grocery Games.

It was a gamble, but Love won the action-packed competition and not only used half of the prize money to continue feeding hungry Chicagoans in need, but he also donated the other half to the United Services Organization.

Whether this kind, talented, and good-looking chef is single, we don’t know – but we do know that the Turkey Chop Grill will stay open for business and continue to be a hot spot for the homeless.

Soup Kitchen Disguised as Cafe Offers Side of Dignity to Kansas City Poor - www.goodnewsnetwork.org

Soup Kitchen Disguised as Cafe Offers Side of Dignity to Kansas City Poor

There’s no waiting in line at this soup kitchen where food is served with plenty of humanity.
The staff takes your custom order right at your table and brings healthy meals even if you don’t have a dime in your pocket.

The Kansas City Community Kitchen feeds the city’s hungry in a restaurant setting. When someone comes in off the street for a hot meal, they’re met by a greeter who takes them to a table where a waiter takes the person’s order.

It sometimes catches the homeless off-guard.

“It’s different,” Brian Oglesby told the Kansas City Star “They’re treating me good, like they don’t know I’m homeless.”

The kitchen staff whips up healthy fare based on the ingredients they have for the day, and the presentation on the plate looks like what something from an upscale restaurant.
Substitutions are no problem. The Kitchen can make changes to meet health, dietary, or religious requirements.

The selections are low in sodium and high in nutrients — an effort to reduce the cases of hypertension, diabetes, and expensive hospital visits for the homeless.
The people behind the project have something more than just food on their menu — they want to find jobs for the homeless.

Episcopal Community Services, which runs the kitchen, offers volunteers a six-month training program in culinary arts. The final two months, they work in restaurants as interns — with requirements that they receive a minimum wage of $13 an hour.

Kansas City isn’t the only American city using this model to feed the hungry. Masbia—which means “to satiate” in Hebrew—is a three-kitchen network in New York City serving healthy kosher food to the poor in a setting that runs exactly like a cafe, except without requiring payment, in Brooklyn and Queens.