Dusty's Sacks of Hope: A 9-Year-Old's Lunches for Portland's Homeless

Dusty's Sacks of Hope: A Young Volunteer's Food-Donation Project

Dusty and an adult volunteer bringing lunches to people sleeping under a Portland bridge. Photo: Dusty's Sacks of Hope / Facebook.

In 2015 a nine-year-old named Dusty Liulay tried to sign up at soup kitchens in Portland, Oregon, and was turned away because he was too young. Instead of giving up, he started his own small project, Dusty's Sacks of Hope: every Sunday he, his family and a few volunteers drove into Portland and handed out brown-bag lunches to people living on the street, somewhere between 100 and 150 of them a week.

Local station KOIN told his story in October 2015, and it travelled widely online. Below is what was reported at the time, what the numbers actually meant, and what anyone, young or old, can learn from it about helping people who are homeless in a practical way.

Who Dusty Liulay is and how the project started

Dusty's family lived in the Vancouver, Washington area, just across the Columbia River from Portland. According to KOIN, they had moved to the Pacific Northwest from Philadelphia, where Dusty had been helping at shelters and soup kitchens with his family since he was about five. His mother, Jenny Lay, described him as having "an old soul".

When the family settled in their new home, Dusty wanted to carry on. The soup kitchens he contacted, however, required volunteers to be at least 17, a common rule because kitchens deal with hot equipment, knives and sometimes tense situations. Rather than wait eight years, he decided to cut out the kitchen and take food directly to the people who needed it.

His explanation for why it mattered was simple. As he told KOIN, "A lot of people run into a streak of bad luck and lose their homes and food."

How a weekly sack lunch round works

The model was deliberately simple. Volunteers packed brown paper bags with a lunch, and on Sunday the group drove into Portland and walked to places where people sleep rough, such as the areas under the city's bridges, handing a bag to anyone who wanted one.

Sack lunches have a few advantages over a hot meal. They need no kitchen or serving line, they can be carried to people who cannot or will not go to a shelter, and they can be eaten later in the day. Many established Portland charities, including Blanchet House, run sack lunch programmes for the same reasons.

The weekly totals in the 2015 reports varied. Some stories said about 100 bags a week; others said as many as 150. Both numbers probably reflect real Sundays: the size of each round depended on how much money and how many volunteers were available that week.

A young member of the project smiling from a school bus window. Photo: Dusty's Sacks of Hope.

The family effort behind the headlines

Headlines focused on the nine-year-old, but the project was a team effort. His cousin, Caelie Agosta, then a sixth grader, acted as the chief fundraiser. Parents drove, helped shop and supervised the hand-outs. Friends packed bags.

Money came through a GoFundMe page, which raised more than $2,600 in about its first month. Caelie told KOIN that each bag cost just under $2 to make, and that $200 could feed 120 to 130 people. Earlier versions of this story that circulated online said $100 bought about 120 lunches; the figure reported by KOIN is the more reliable one. The family also said it hoped to register the project as a nonprofit so donations could be tax-deductible.

These numbers are from 2015 and are not a current appeal. If you want to support a similar effort today, contact an established local charity and ask what it needs.

Why a lunch matters to someone sleeping outside

For people without a home, food is one of the hardest daily problems. Without a kitchen, a fridge or a safe place to store groceries, even someone with a little money has to buy ready-made food at a higher price. Shelters and meal sites often serve at fixed times and places, which is difficult for people who work irregular jobs, are unwell or move around the city.

A bag handed over in person also does something less measurable: it means a stranger stopped, looked at them and spoke. People who have been homeless often say that being ignored is one of the worst parts of the experience. A child saying hello with a sandwich can break through that in a way a donation box cannot.

At the same time, a lunch is not a solution to homelessness. Housing costs, health problems, addiction, job loss and family breakdown are what push people onto the street, and long-term help needs housing, health care and steady support. Projects like Dusty's fill a gap on a given day; they work best alongside, not instead of, those bigger efforts.

If your child wants to help: practical ways to start

Many children feel what Dusty felt: they see someone sleeping in a doorway and want to do something. Age rules at soup kitchens are real, but there are still ways for young people to take part safely.

Join an existing sack lunch session. Several charities, including some in Portland listed through Hands On Portland, run family packing sessions where children from about six can help under adult supervision.
Pack, don't cook. Shelf-stable items such as granola bars, fruit cups, crackers, peanut-free spreads and bottled water are safer than homemade sandwiches that can spoil in a hot car. Ask the receiving charity what it accepts.
Add useful extras. Clean socks, hand wipes, lip balm and a short note are often welcomed, particularly in winter.
Let adults lead the hand-out. Go as a group, stay together and let a parent or experienced volunteer approach first. Respect people who say no thank you.
Raise money with a clear plan. If children fundraise, decide with them in advance exactly where the money will go and report back to donors on how it was spent.
Keep it going. A small round every week or month often does more good than one big event, because people come to know and trust the volunteers.

Other young volunteers with similar ideas

Dusty was not the only child whose idea made the news in those years. Hailey Fort, a girl from Washington State, built small shelters for homeless people and grew vegetables to give away; you can read about her in our story on Hailey Fort's shelter and garden project. Their stories have something in common: an adult said no, or a problem looked too big, and the child found a smaller, practical version they could actually do every week.

That is perhaps the most useful lesson here. Helping does not have to start with a large organisation or a big budget. It can start with a paper bag, a sandwich and the decision to come back next Sunday.

Sources: KOIN 6 News: Dusty's Sacks of Hope (18 October 2015); Good News Network: Every Week, Boy Packs 100 Bags With Food for Homeless (20 October 2015); Dusty's Sacks of Hope GoFundMe page; Blanchet House: Sack Lunch Program; first shared via True Activist. Photos: Dusty's Sacks of Hope.

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