Upper Room Mission Benefits From Kindness Meters

Vernon’s mayor feels the kindness meters have made an impact in reducing panhandling in the downtown.

Akbal Mund says the orange-coloured parking meters were put in last year by the city to give people a way to help local social agencies, rather than giving change to panhandlers.

“As you know, those were put in for panhandling. The complaints of panhandling are almost non-existent now, just totally disappeared. We don’t get complaints about panhandlers. So have they worked? In that sense, yes they have.”

And people have been feeding the meters, with about 2-thousand dollars expected to be generated this year.