FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Jillian Pim was there the day Arnold Abbott, 90, and two pastors were charged with feeding the homeless in Fort Lauderdale 12 days ago. She said the minute it happened, she began a hunger strike against what she calls the homeless hate laws.
"If they see me starve, then maybe that could prevent all the people that I care about from starving," Pim said.
Pim, 30, said that all she has consumed in the past 12 days is water with lemon. She weighed 143 pounds on the day the ordinance started and said she is afraid to get on a scale now but has lost five inches around her waist.
"What do you miss the most?" Local 10 News investigative reporter Bob Norman asked.
"Coffee and chocolate," Pim said. "I've been getting by with smelling people's food and beverages."
Pim said her energy has gone so low that she had to quit her job at Spyke Grove in Davie on Tuesday.
"It was very, very sad," she said. "I love my job so much."
Pim has devoted much of her life to helping the homeless with the Food Not Bombs group and has been sharing food in Stranahan Park for the last four years. She said the group does more than provide food.
"A lot of people can't take care of themselves," she said. "That's why we take care of them."
She has a message for the city.
"Stop the hate," Pim said.
"You're willing to go all the way?" Norman asked.
"I am, all the way," she said.
"And where is all the way?" Norman asked.
"To the grave if it has to be," she said. "I hope it doesn't get there."
Pim told Local 10 she won't end the hunger strike until the ordinance is repealed or is no longer enforced.
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