JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The line on East Union Street starts to form before noon. Beef stew is on the menu. Every Saturday for nearly two years, Charlie Griffin has fed anyone and everyone who comes looking for a meal.
"There's some people who are not doing as well as I am," Griffin says. "I live downtown and when I see it I want to do whatever little piece I can do just to be a positive contributor."
Griffin is a positive contributor and more. Purely out of the kindness of his heart, the Marine veteran pays for the food for these meals out of his own pocket. That's meals for dozens of people, every single Saturday.
"We get a few donations here and there, but I literally take my retirement checks month in and month out, week in and week out and I dump it into this," says Griffin. "A lot of the folks that we serve, they are homeless, there are some people we serve who are on fixed incomes and this may be the difference in them getting a hot meal this week and not getting a hot meal this week. It means everything to me."
It means everything to the people Griffin serves as well.
"This is not 1939, but we all need help," says Jacksonville resident William Frazier, while standing in line to get a meal. "We need this, thank them, but we need this."
Griffin uses his retirement checks not for a beach house in Boca, but to serve his community.
"Man, this is my beach house, this is my Boca," exclaims Griffin from the parking lot where he serves meals. "This is what it's all about. We can have all of the money in the world but if you're just sitting on it, and if somebody else is out here hurting, what good are you?"
Need to find Griffin? Every lunchtime, every Saturday for the past 2 years and for as long as he able to going forward,he'll be in the parking lot of First Coast Community Development at the corner of Union and Ocean streets feeding those who need help.