Jaden Smith turned 21 last Friday. He celebrated by dropping his second album, ERYS, which is an elaborate way to mark the milestone. However, what’s even more impressive is what he did after his birthday. Last Sunday, Jaden announced the launch of his latest charitable endeavor, I Love You Restaurant, which is a food truck that hands out healthy, vegan food to the homeless.
Jaden also posted this video of folks receiving the paper bags full of food and this photo, which he combined with promotion of his album. I have nothing but praise for Jaden on this. California has an unprecedented amount of homeless/unhoused people currently. Upwards of 60,000 of the state’s homeless/unhoused live in Los Angeles alone, which is a 12% increase over the last two years. The current POTUS likes to hurl insults at us about it, yet refuses our request for help so our mayor and city leaders are trying to figure out what they can do, and our governor is opening up some extra funds. But the situation is too big to manage and while everyone tries to come up with a plan on how to improve conditions for those affected, those affected are dying. So Jaden’s involvement and act of compassion is everything. I don’t expect rich, private citizens to solve issues such as this, but I appreciate when they make some form of contribution.
Remember this isn’t Jaden’s first wide-scale, philanthropic endeavor. Last year he was one of the investors of JUST Water, an environmentally conscientious water company. That partnership has given birth to The Water Box, a smaller version of water filtration system used by JUST Water, that has been dispatched to Flint, Michigan to help with their water crisis. Jaden recently gifted Ellen DeGeneres a box with her name and logo on it that he donated to Flint. Jaden is 21 years old and has lived a life of privilege. This earns him a lot of respect in my book. I can’t wait to see where his proposed JADENInc goes next.
Photo credit: Instagram and WENN Photos
This is so great. It’s so easy for people who can help to sit back and do nothing, but if he spends his life and wealth helping others then that’s amazing.
yes! I mean I am usually weary of the Smith kids but this is really something wonderful.
I agree. He could do nothing, and instead makes positive contributions!
21 is the age when you want make the difference. Kudos to him.
I wonder what he would do if he had received a real education.
@Eleonor…He’s doing good for his fellow man…he got the BEST education a human being can get…
@Eleonor ……. what have you done to help anyone? I suspect the REAL answer is nothing because anyone who has helped their fellow human beings can only appreciate this act instead of making snide comments
It is. It’s great that Jaden is doing this.
I agree. Good kid. Hope he keeps it up!! Maybe the caTRASHIANs could take this as an example as to how to be decent human beings. They can spend their money as they see fit, whatever fit is to them, but should consider how many people out there have sooooo little while they have soooo much.
I have nothing but praise for him doing this (and the Flint water truck).
I remember using the kindness of the Hare Krishnas in Melbourne for a decent meal when I was younger. This is so kind and wonderful. I always thought he was a douche…opinion totally changed.
Good for him. I hope others will follow in his steps. Philanthropy has really fallen out of favour in recent years (I’ve read some less than encouraging stats about the silicone valley execs and their lack of involvement). I sincerely hope Jaden continues using his platform in such a positive way.
I agree Hannah. We keep moving to a society where we are no longer WE and have divided ourselves into groups with the groups thinking about their own agendas and not the greater good. We all live here and have limited time. Why not try to make it BETTER and be a citizen of the world???
This makes my heart happy. What a great young man he is turning out to be.
For a second I read it vegan free food truck….
But good for him!
Lolz @ vegan free. Like, not today, vegetables. Not today.
Love, love, love this. Feeding hungry people is one of the nicest things you can do IMO and he didn’t have to do this. Speaks to his good character that he did.
This is amazing. I remember some people dissing this boy when he was a teenager for his cooky ways. And I’ll never forget Kitten who said he seems like a decent boy and not like other celebrity kids and people should leave him alone..
I’m so proud of him..
#BlackBoyMagic
WORD.
So happening.
IIRC, people were put off because he eschewed formal education and of course the whole Scientology thing, which is still concerning. But on this, his heart is definitely in the right place.
Caring for other people is pretty much the opposite of scientology.
I got nothing but love for this kid. Go, Jaden! Go!
I was one of those people and I happily stand corrected. Thanks Kitten and MzansiZuluGirl for showing me the error of my ways 🙂
I stand corrected too. And I like being corrected when it comes to something like this. I hope he continues to shine and help people and hope he finds the peace and well being that comes with doing good for the others.
Yup. Those threads exhausted the hell out of me to the point where I just stopped reading them anymore.
Jaden and Willow always struck me as kind and thoughtful young people. A bit quirky and out-there? Sure, but who cares? A lot of artists and celeb kids are a bit eccentric but most aren’t as caring as the Smith kids. So yeah, I’ll take “kooky and sweet” over “kooky and selfish” any day of the week.
Jaden’s heart is in the right place, unlike most celebrity offspring.
Wow props to Jaden, the kid is out there doing something to help others because he can and wants to. He’s a great role model with a good heart.
This is absolutely lovely. Good for him.
I help cook a meal once a month for the homeless in our area and it’s heartbreaking. The people that come are so grateful for a real meal. And we can’t always give them what we want, like fresh vegetables or high quality protein, because we are on a tight budget of donated money. Providing veggie first food is such a great thing. I’ve always been a fan, because normal is over rated and kindness is under rated. He’s always been the he and not the other.
My dream is getting one of those washing machine trucks they have in Aus, so we can allow people to wash their clothing. Or a truck with a portable shower would be crazy good.
I live in Oakland CA and I’ve seen a portable shower truck that goes around. It can be done. I think they might also have laundry, not sure.
This is awesome of him.
It’s so sad that there are so many homeless people.
I agree. It’s unconscionable.
What’s heart breaking is that a large percentage of these homeless people were BUSSED to LA from neighboring cities…San Diego, I’m looking at YOU. Someone told me that they started interviewing the homeless, asking them where they grew up, how they “got to” the streets of LA, and they started telling a similar tale of being given 100$, and a bus ticket out of their encampment, usually from some other outlying southern CA community, and dropped off in Downtown LA.
These cities dont care about their people enough to try to remedy the problem. They just petition, bitch at city council meetings, and then the big ups send their refuse away to another city. This is a large factor in why Angeles has seen a spike in homelessness this past year. (Housing costs are another problem!) No one wants to talk about it because developers, and those with money and influence hold all of the local cards, and they dont want the “stench” on their hands.
It’s really a terrible situation. The BIGGEST contributor to homelessness in our nation is what Ronald Reagan did to mental health facilities when he was in office. Many people that needed care became homeless.
LA has built a lot more shelters recently, but they are operating at less than 50% capacity. So now the problem is, why are the homeless refusing to go to the shelters? The shelters typically have certain rules that people have to obey (curfew, how much stuff you can bring, cleaning duties, wake-up times, no drugs, etc.). Additionally, many shelters have sanitation issues (rats, roaches, bedbugs, mold), so people would rather sleep on the street than in a shelter.
All of this, all day.
Reagan (and Bush) destroyed the government mental health safety net. Which also contributed to a huge boom in the homeless population. It was really unconscionable.
Love the steak house ads I’m getting on this page! 😛
This is so commendable, I saw this on Jada’s Insta and my heart melted a bit for this kid-I’ve never had an opinion on him but I love him putting energy and action together.
See, when I hear Kanye West telling Forbes he’s design-thinking solutions to real-world problems I think the impact that Jaden’s having is what Kanye means.
Is Kanye all talk at this point because 1). all I think of him designing are his stunt fashion shows, form over function aesthetics in his house and over-hyped fugly sneakers 2). Kanye is cancelled forever
Kanye is all talk.
this is amazing. It’s something concrete to help these people, and also shining a light on the problem. I “knew” there was a homeless “problem” in LA but seeing those numbers is eye-opening.
I honestly believe the numbers are much higher than 60,000. The homeless population here has exploded over the past few years. It’s mind blowing and heartbreaking and I have no idea what the solution is.
This is awesome 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽
Good for him. Also is the California situation a harbinger of what’s to come more widely from income inequality? Its economy is so often touted as a beacon but how can it be if the rewards are not distributed fairly?
So agree with you.
Income inequality and the economic division caused as climate change increasingly impacts livable area and resources. Climate refugees are going to be a very real thing soon enough.
Yes. Al Gore was right about all of it, too. Sometimes I think of what might have been underway if he had become president.
Climate refugees are already among us, including people from Central America.
The mass displacement from Hurricane Katrina was just a small token of what is to come in our own hemisphere.
Veronica S. have you read about that theory with the Syrian Refugees. It is already happening. As rural lives become untenible in many countries everyone moves to the urban areas. Resources and jobs are scarce. Conflict starts. It is ALREADY here. We are in The Sixth Mass Extinction. The UN predicts serious problems in 2040. We are gonna need more food trucks people. XO Up here in Canada we have politicians fighting for more pipelines. We need intelligence trucks. Can Jaden make those?
I love that Jaden did this. A free healthy food truck. Are you kidding me? This human is wonderful.
Climate refugees are definitely going to be a reality very soon. Look at the water crisis in India. With that huge of a population I don’t know where they are going to move all those refugees to.
Pineapple – I hadn’t seen that, but I found it on a google search and it is an absolutely fascinating and ominous read. Thank you for the suggestion. Here’s a link for anybody else who wants to take a gander: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/a-major-contributor-to-the-syrian-conflict-climate-change
I remember hearing people discuss the possibility of water wars back in the early 2000s as sort of an abstract. It’s mind blowing to think how well they predicted where we would be today. I have a feeling my generation is going to age into some of the ugliest conflicts in human history, unfortunately. We’re already seeing the signs of the upheaval caused by medical science extending lifetimes beyond what our social structure was designed to properly uphold, as well as the resource disparity caused by those of us living in the industrialized world. Frightening to think of what’s to come, to be honest. No wonder billionaires are consolidating their hold on power – they can see the angry masses coming for them down the road.
Veronica S. the worst part is the wall building. That’s not the solution. Not an ethical or moral one anyway. Jaden needs to get his free vegan food trucks lots of places. XO
What an amazing human being. And at only 21. His parents must be so proud.
Bless him, he should feel proud of himself for being part of such a great initiative. It’s so refreshing to read a feelgood story. Good on him for bringing some positivity to people who really need some in their lives.
I really like this kid. His dad posted a video on YouTube celebrating his 21st bday and I suggest everyone watch it.
Good head on his shoulders – an old saying for an old soul.
I hope that people will finally see Jaden for who he is and who he’s always been. People have accused him of being thirsty and attention-seeking and they’ve mocked him for the esoteric and yes, sometimes spacey things he’s said in the past. But I’ve always believed that this is authentically WHO Jaden is and it’s not an act. He’s always been on that spiritual kick and often with that mindset comes a lot of empathy and soulfulness. I just hope people will back off a bit in the future. There are celebspawn deserving of our ire but Jaden and Willow ain’t it.
I never prescribed to people’s ire over these kids. They did seem a flighty but not actual problem. I worried how the lack of boundaries for children would impact young celeb offspring, but now its clear that Will and Jada must have had some parameters in place. It just sounded too dangerous. But you are right. Jaden has always came across as spiritual and metaphysical thinker. I think he lacks the communication skills and maturity to speak his knowledge as wisdom so he gets mocked instead.
I normally side-eye the Smith kids but there’s no shade for this. What a wonderful thing to do.
I think it’s great that he is doing this, making an effort, and trying. I’m rereading To Have or To Be again and it’s amazing how relevant the book is today; it’s probably more relevant today than when it was originally published in the seventies. We are headed nowhere good as a society, especially in America. Richard Titmuss called it a long time ago.
“our mayor and city leaders are trying to figure out what they can do,”
Give the homeless homes. It works.
He hasn’t been on my radar but he is now….and with respect.
I really like this kid, he’s a good egg.
I respect that he is not afraid to do good with his money. he has no fear of losing it, so he is generous. amazing job will & jada!
I always enjoyed Jaden’s kooky pronouncements. But this? Now I truly admire him.
this is a fantastic use of the fame and money that comes along with being the child of celebrities!
what a sweet soul! 🙂
He’s still poorly educated but he has a kind, compassionate heart. His parents have every reason to be completely proud.
Grammar is hard, especially in English. But human decency shouldn’t be.
You couldn’t just say something nice and go…
Well done, Jaden!!! You are a shining example to the rest of us.
I am so proud of Jaden! What an awesome way to celebrate his 21st birthday. Shoot, I remember getting liquored up and making a fool of myself when I rang in my day of becoming a legal adult. Jaden’s actions are counter- indicative of the stereotypes we have about kids from his generation (i.e., laziness and self-absorption). He is really putting his words into action and I commend him for his efforts to make this world a better place.
Nice to read something positive. Good for him!
This young man has restored faith in humanity!
Love everything about this. Jaden is a good person and a great citizen.
He is an example to all the filthy rich out there that creating a sustainable, compassionate society can be as simple as giving out free food. It seems to me that the richer many people become the more selfish and greedy they become. Those who have the most become addicted to money instead of using it to better society. Do these oligarchs really need a fleet of Mazaratis? Do they need massive homes all over the world and private jets and solid gold bathroom fixtures and $1,000 sneakers? Grifters in the White House, human traffickers getting off with a hand slap? Money IS the root of all evil.
Wow, Jaden is one to watch! It warms my heart to see his kindness. I am vegan two decades and vegan cuisine has not let me down!
The Smiths kids always irk me. But I cant hate on him when he is doing such a great thing. Good for him!
He has a big heart! So selfless for a 21 year old man! Good for him! Spread love!!
I think it really makes a difference when kids have involved parents who are caring yet cautious and also give them their space to figure things out. Will and Jada did a good job with their kids, and you can tell Jada is a great mom because Wills older son loves her too. They may have kooky parenting ways but they’re doing a good job. What Jaden is doing is amazing and inspiring and there aren’t enough young kids out there that are so socially aware and striving to make a difference.