Are these seriously charitable acts?

A friend and I have recently gotten on the discussion topic of charity and what charity is an we've been on this every so often for the past few days. I want to know what you think of this stuff.

A person sees a person on the side of the road with a sign saying "food" and pulls over, picks them up and offers them dinner because they didn't have work that night and had gotten paid recently and the person with the sign chose a fast food place and only ordered from the dollar menu! The person buying took them to the grocery store and all this lady wants is ramen which is not a real meal. She kept saying "You've done enough" which is retarded because ramen isn't a meal so they pestered her until she had picked some bread, fruits and water up. The person couldn't let them go yet because that's not a real meal but she insisted that's all she wanted until they were offered a cooked chicken and garlic bread. That's a good meal.

An older gentleman is standing in front of a busy grocery store asking people if they can buy his wife and him a meal and a person agrees and asks them what they want and they want tacos from the carcinera so the person agrees and tells em to order and wave them down when they need to pay and the person goes and gets their cakes, comes back real quick to swipe the card and get back to shopping. This person really liked fresh cakes so this became a regular thing where they'd see each other and the person just waves em in and tells em "wave me down" and the older guy was cool and didn't seem offended at the person's social awkwardness. He didn't speak much English anyway though and he seemed more interested in feeding his wife, I think she must have been very timid because she would kind of be hiding until he called her over. It seemed like she might have been mentally handicapped.

So there are other stories that we discussed but they mainly consisted of buying someone a meal when they asked for food or money or giving some stranger a ride who is stuck on the side of the road and stuff like that. We feel like it's kind of uncharitable because if we truly are charitable, we'd try to hook them up with long term assistance but we are both broke college students and like to hoard what little wealth we have.

If you're wondering, yes I know I look I'm trying to tell my friend that a bunch of random people online think we're decent people because we have fragile egos. I expect I look like a tool right now but I'd appreciate it if you just start off the post by stating that and then tell me what you actually think, I can take it.

Yes, all of them are charitable. 5
Yes, some of them are charitable 0
No, none of these are charitable 0
Other (comment) 0
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, my love 0
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Comments ( 1 )
  • victorygin

    Well, I think charity is just helping someone out (who needs and wants it) without expecting anything in return.
    It can be small or big. But you don't have to turn their whole life around, and you don't have to provide things that are going to be a huge inconvenience for you.
    So, I think all those things are charitable.

    A lot of times you can do something that doesn't make much difference to you, but it makes a big difference to someone who is struggling.

    But you need to know the limits as well. I met this guy at a fast food restaurant once, and he needed a place to stay. I know what it's like to be in that position, and I thought about trying to figure something out for him.
    But then I'd be putting my (new) housemates in a very awkward situation, and the guy did seem possibly crazy and on drugs (which could've caused problems). So, I told him I wanted to but couldn't help.
    You can't help everyone.

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