Dale beamed when his new friend Jason Wright handed him a Burger King gift card on a hot July day.
This wasn’t your typical interaction between friends. In fact, it was the pair’s first meeting.
Dale, an unhoused man, had been sitting under a tree in a Salt Lake City park surrounded by all of his belongings when Wright approached him.
The two talked about Dale’s life and love of writing, something they bonded over. Then Wright handed Dale gift cards to his favorite restaurant. Dale’s joy and surprise led to Wright handing him a few more.
“I doubt he had been that surprised and that full of joy in years — at $100 worth of gift cards to Burger King,” Wright said.
Dale is one of the many individuals Wright has helped through the Kindness Card Movement, where people from all over the country donate gift cards to Wright to give away to the hungry and unhoused.
The origin of the Kindness Card Movement
On June 26, 2022, in Stephens City, Virginia, Wright, a speaker and author, had just finished his remarks at Fairview Church when then-Pastor Laetitia Schoeman and church member Dawn Welch handed him a wallet.
Wright didn’t quite know what he was looking at. The gift was more unique than the typical T-shirt, mug or candy he’d been gifted at previous speaking engagements.
He was then told that the wallet contained $350 worth of gift cards, but they weren’t for him. The church had heard of Wright’s habit of befriending the lonely and neglected, including the hungry and unhoused.
They wanted Wright to use the cards to buy those strangers-turned-friends a meal. On that day, the Kindness Card Movement was born.
As Wright embarked on his new mission, he would share stories from his interactions on social media because he felt it was important that “the people I meet have an opportunity to share the why in their circumstances,” he said.
The cards lasted a few months, but before they ran out, Wright was gifted more donations while at book signings and speaking engagements.
“Certainly, when I walked out of the church that day, in my mind, I was never imagining that strangers from across the country would be sending me currency or handing me gift cards to pay forward in their honor,” he said.
Now, three years after he was given the wallet, Wright has gifted cards in over 30 states and received donations from almost every state with a donation total nearing $50,000.
Spreading kindness
In all of his Kindness Card interactions, Wright has never witnessed any ingratitude from the recipient. Their reaction is quite the opposite.
“People have cried at the notion of Chick-fil-A. Seriously, their eyes well up,“ he said. “Many of these people, their last meal was the leftover from your last meal.”
When deciding who to give a card to, Wright relies on his experience and “good old-fashioned common sense” to avoid putting himself in an unsafe situation. He also leans on his faith to guide him.
“I believe in a God that gives us guidance if we’ll tune in, and so, I try to tune in,” he said. “I don’t do it perfectly, but I do try to listen.”
Wright is often asked various “what if” questions when it comes to the recipients: What if they’re not really homeless, they don’t actually need it or they misuse the gift?
Wright doesn’t care about the answers to those questions.
“That does not keep me up for even a split second because I don’t think that that’s our job,” he said.
Donors don’t seem to care either, never placing stipulations on their donation’s use.
“People trust that it’ll find the right home, and they do,” he said.
The recipients aren’t the only ones who walk away from the interactions changed.
Wright’s eyes are always opened with each experience. He often walks away feeling the weight of his new friend’s hardships and with a greater perspective.
“The difference for me is that I get to climb back into a car, go home to family, eat a well balanced meal and sleep in a bed. But my new friends leave their interactions and return to none of those things,” he said.
Sometimes, the interactions bring Wright to tears.
“I come away with a pretty overwhelming feeling that God put me in that place at that time with that resource — this $100 worth of meals or whatever — for a reason and that that person needed to be fed more ways than just a meal or two," he said.
Each interaction has brought Wright a little closer to God. The majority of his most spiritual experiences over the last three years have been through the Kindness Card Movement, he said.
“I tell you with all sincerity that I believe I am a better person after each and every interaction that I have,” he said. “I just know how much God loves these people. He loves them deeply and personally, and he wants us to love them, too.”
More than a meal
The Kindness Card Movement goes beyond feeding the hungry and unhoused.
It allows individuals to “walk into a restaurant with their head held high, not asking for a handout, not asking for money in the parking lot, or not looking for leftovers and get to buy their own meal,” Wright said.
The people helped through the Kindness Card Movement have lived what Wright described as “an isolating life amongst many people.”
“No one’s asked their name in months or longer. Like, no one cares. No one introduces themselves. They’re not used to anybody shaking their hand or looking them in the eye and saying, ‘What is your name?’” he said.
When Wright stops to have a conversation with these individuals, it gives them a chance to be acknowledged and feel like a person again.
“It sounds so unbelievably cliché, but if you give them five seconds of kindness by seeing them and smiling at them and looking them in the eye, you give them some validation that they matter, and that is incredible currency for these folks that are going through hard times — far more valuable than the $2 you’re going to throw out your window,” he said.
Some of those conversations have been with people who are ready to give up. Wright hopes the feelings of being seen and that they matter will last beyond their time together.
“I’m just hoping that they’ll remember that time that some weirdo from Virginia talked to them on the street corner for an hour and reminded them that they’re not alone, that God sees them, that God knows their name, that God hears their prayers,” he said.
Growing the movement
Though it’s been around for three years, Wright is calling this year the Kindness Card Movement’s pilot year as he focuses on growing the movement before potentially transitioning it into a nonprofit.
As part of that, the movement launched its leadership circle this year. Donors who have donated $2,500 join the leadership circle where they’re able to advise and counsel the movement.
Fairview Church, whose original donation started it all, recently joined the leadership circle with another contribution to the Kindness Card Movement.
In June, Wright returned to the church to speak again. Afterwards, the church gave him $1,500 in gift cards, which they taped together to form a train that wrapped around the interior of the chapel. They then gave Wright a check for $2,500.
That money went toward Wright’s goal of raising $250,000 this year in his pursuit of spreading kindness. But that will only be possible through the kindness of strangers.
Despite appearances on “Good Morning America” and “The Kelly Clarkson Show”, so far, the most effective way the movement has grown is by word of mouth, and Wright thinks that’s part of the beauty of the movement.
“It’s really kind of one donor at a time tells the story to someone at church, to their neighbor, at their family reunion,” he said.
Then that neighbor or family member calls, texts or messages Wright on Facebook asking how they can contribute.
“It’s quite an honor that people trust me to do that for them, to have these safe interactions with people and to give them an opportunity to be seen and tell their story,” he said.
Wright still receives donations at his book signings or speaking engagements, like the teary-eyed woman who handed Wright $500 worth of Visa gift cards after he spoke to youth at a church in Waynesboro, Virginia.
Then there’s the elementary school students who raised money as a class.
Or, there’s the high school seniors at a Boys State in Virginia who donated the emergency cash their parents gave them and the one boy who gave his partially used gift card to a local cafe in Richmond, Virginia, because that was all he had to give.
“The common denominator is that everyone wants to make a difference, and this movement of kindness ties us together. It’s a religion of kindness, I think, for a lot of people,” Wright said.
Those interested in donating to the Kindness Card Movement can find instructions on its website. There, you’ll also find how you can start your own local movement, which would make Wright more than happy to see.
“This isn’t mine. This doesn’t belong to me. I’m just here to help people, to be a resource for donors, for recipients, for people that want to launch it in their own community. Nothing would make me happier than to see a thousand of me doing this around the country and feeding people a few days at a time.”