After living on streets, Doug Brown fed the homeless

ST. PETERSBURG — Doug Brown dressed like a homeless person whenever he solicited donations from a church or social service agency. It was his way of personalizing the plight of the homeless.

If you want to tell if a person is really homeless, Brown would say, look at his shoes. His looked like they had been fed through a lawn mower.

Brown had once been homeless, but with some help from others, he had put his life back in order. He had found a new wife, a church and a mission: helping the homeless.

Since the mid 1980s, Mr. Brown operated Street Ministry, a homeless outreach program. Out of his van or in soup kitchens, he orchestrated the supply chain that fed thousands.

Mr. Brown, whose volunteer efforts to feed the hungry produced more than 1 million meals over more than 20 years, died Tuesday of cancer. He was 61.

Getting food to the hungry brought out a confidence in Mr. Brown, who was normally reserved — even shy.

"When he was out on the soup kitchen at night, he was a different person," said Rich Kubick, president of the South Pinellas chapter of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.

For the last 15 years, Mr. Brown got the food from more than a dozen churches to the society's nightly feedings at 384 15th St. N.

"We have 16 churches come in here throughout the month," Kubick said. "Some serve one night, some serve two. Doug was the actual person who coordinated these churches and the movement of food for these homeless people downtown."

In 1996, his feeding of the homeless in Williams Park ran afoul of then-Mayor David Fischer, who said outdoor feeding worsened problems that homelessness posed to the city. Mr. Brown moved his operation inside.

Later that year, Brown saw news of the St. Petersburg riots on his television. He hopped in his van and headed for the heart of the disturbances.

As buildings burned, he served coffee and sandwiches to residents, the homeless and police.

"There was a circle of peace all around the van," said Carolyn Allison, his stepdaughter.

Mr. Brown grew up in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., and moved to the Tampa Bay area as a young man. His marriage failed, he lost his house, he drank more.

He was homeless for two years. Then a stranger offered him a job moving a carnival.

"I turned my life around — once someone showed they cared and took a chance on me," Mr. Brown said in 1990. Over the years he drove a truck, managed an auto detailing shop and worked in pest control.

In 1983, he remarried and joined the First United Methodist Church in Pinellas Park, where a minister challenged the congregation to do something extraordinary. He and another man bought bread and sandwich meat and looked for hungry people. Street Ministry was born.

The program, an outreach of his church, eventually served 80,000 meals a year.

The night Mr. Brown died, St. Vincent de Paul fed 224 people.