 say good afternoon all right well thank you all for being here today I want to acknowledge first my colleague councilman Trevino who has been a tremendous supporter in creating compassionate policies in San Antonio we talked about his night overnight in the courtyard about a month ago and it's very enlightening to be in and among the people who work in your area so thanks so much for your work San Antonio is a charitable city we've seen that on a large scale people like to know our city from what happened in 2005 under Mayor Bill Hardburger when the world was trying to figure out up from down after the hurricane Katrina and Mayor Hardburger opened our arms and said come come here we will take you in we will be neighbors we will be friends and we will be with you in your darkest times we've seen that recently in our city's response from organizations such as the chambers of commerce to our international offices on the response to typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines and the outpouring of support that this community gave to that those communities in the Philippines and we've seen it on a small scale every day the daily acts of kindness that people in this room undertake to make our community a better place for those individuals who most need it nowhere in this is the spirit of San Antonio's generosity more evident than our desire to feed our homeless neighbors the goal of today's summit is to empower those who feel called to give and to make sure they do so safely and responsibly I'm the chair of the city's quality of life committee I've worked with my council colleagues such as Councilman Trevino and city staff to examine the policies that govern the feeding of homeless in San Antonio and to ensure that they protect the health of those being fed without hindering those doing the feeding I want to make special recognition to Melody Woosley and the Department of Human Services the outstanding they work the work they do for the city every day certainly there are policies and we can all point to them in any number of areas in our community that need to be refined we began this discussion a few months ago at city at the council committee level because we identified this as being one of those areas we've been talking about as a community let's refine it let's work with our stakeholders if we want to move the city forward we have a genuine interest in doing so we'll work together to make it happen we agreed that this was an important first step coming to you the foot soldiers in this fight for your input and guidance so I want to thank you all each one of you sitting here today has input on this issue you're all stakeholders in attendance certainly again thank you for being here to city staff for organizing the summit and most importantly those of you who dedicate your time and talent serving San Antonians in need this day is for you we are a city of compassion we are a city of charity and hope and today's discussion will only bear that out there's a lot of work yet to do ahead and we thank you for your patience as we begin to really work on how we refine our policy and move forward together as a city under those values so thank you very much for being here look forward to having the discussions with you turn it back over