Elizabeth Song | Could you spare a smile?

It's not an uncommon scenario. You're waiting in line for the $2.50 egg white sandwich at Bui's Food Truck, and an unshaven man in scruffed-up Timberlands, reeking of stale cigarettes, asks you for change.

Sister, can you spare a dime? Will you help a brother out? God bless.

And unflinchingly, I deliver my perennial answer: Sorry. I don't have any change to give. (Even through it's obvious that I do have a few nickels rattling around in my wallet.) I shrug and walk away; the man saunters over to the next guy and repeats.

Until three weeks ago, that was how the world worked. But then, I met Mike. Formerly homeless, he highlighted a more pernicious side of poverty - human neglect.

No one ever solved chronic hunger with 10 cents. But you can crown someone's day with a kind word. And that's the sort of priceless good that anyone can deliver.

This month, I and 13 other Penn students set out on a whirlwind Alternate Spring Break trip to Cincinnati. After a weeklong survey of the issues surrounding urban poverty, I still don't know the answers. But my routine has changed.

Today, I still refuse to dole out pocket change, which might just fuel a drug addiction - or a savvy con artist's bank account. So I offer one of the endless 99-cent Cliff bars I carry around. I make awkward but polite conversation.

I try hard to smile - even if their faces look kind of, well, scary. And I try to smile wide enough so my braces catch the sunlight. After all, it might be one of the rare smiles they get.

"What they lack other than material things is the experience of making an authentic connection with another human being," said Ed Speedling, a spokesman for a local homeless advocacy group, Project H.O.M.E.

All the homeless advocates I spoke with were of one mind: A panhandler doesn't necessarily need the sort of change that you can fish out of your back pocket. What they do need is an attitude change from us, the lucky ones standing on the other side of the looking glass.

Unfortunately, doling out money is just a band-aid - and an ineffective one at best. A 1990s survey of panhandlers for the Center City District revealed that a majority use the money for drugs.

The same study showed that about half of panhandlers are not homeless. Many of the homeless are part of the working poor, shouldering a grim load of minimum wage jobs. Most of them never solicit your change. Others are overlooked by pedestrians and told to beat it by the cops.

For those in need, smiles and respect still have a lot of currency. Throwing money at someone to make them go away is worse than a kind refusal.

If you really want to help, find different channels for aid - like volunteering at a homeless shelter or soup kitchen. Or buy the person a sandwich and chat with them.

Still, money is money. You (or your parents) earned it. You have the right to spend every penny yourself - or give to a different cause.

But courtesy should always come free. "Provide what you're comfortable about providing - a kind word, or 'I'm sorry, I can't help you today,'" Speedling told me.

So instead of that dollar bill, roll out some of that famous brotherly love. Even if it's just a smile and a nod. Now that's real change.

Elizabeth Song is a College junior from Clemmons, NC. Her e-mail is song@dailypennsylvanian.com. Striking a Chord appears Tuesdays.

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