Each winter we take to the streets of Xi'an and distribute new quilts, overcoats and long johns to the homeless as they sleep. Finding them on the streets at night may be a much more difficult and time consuming way to distribute, each night teams are often out until after 3am, but we can learn so much in the process.
Where the homeless sleep, what conditions they live in, what problems they may be facing that we weren't aware of, if there are any new people that we are currently not serving at our Soup Kitchen, and even how many people that we do serve are genuinely homeless and are living on the streets. We find the number is around 95% of the people we serve at the Soup Kitchen are genuinely on the streets, which is a great experience for all of our volunteers to see for themselves as there is still a lot of doubt and cynicism amongst the general population that the homeless are actually wealthy people who don't need help. As of 2012 we have donated around 1000 sets of quilts, overcoats and long johns around the streets of Xi'an.