Spare Change News

Author: Zoe Fowler

  • Vendor Profile: John

    [Editor’s note: This story is based on an interview with one of our vendors and has not been verified.] It all started back in 1962, after I saw The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. I ran out, bought a guitar and started playing. I started my first band when I was 18 years old…

  • Vendor Profile: Christopher

    Youthful and energetic, Christopher is always among the first to speak out and offer advice and encouragement when other Spare Change News vendors have problems or concerns. I am surprised when he tells me he will be celebrating his 50th birthday this July, and he roars with laughter when I confess I had thought him…

  • Vendor Profile: Mark

    Walk through the Red Line’s Davis Station on any morning of the week and you’ll see Mark. He is the slim, gray-haired man in the Red Sox baseball cap who sells Spare Change News at the bottom of the College Street escalator. If you have time, stop for a chat. He is one of the…

  • Vendor Profile: Michael

    If you regularly walk through Harvard Square, you’ll recognize Michael: he’s sold SPARE CHANGE NEWS outside the Church Street exit of Harvard station for nearly sixteen years. In the winter he wears a bright red coat and a warm smile. He always seems to have a good word for everyone, but not everyone makes him…

  • Vendor Profile: Keith, Part Two

    [Editor’s note: Read part one here.] I have always had this instinct in me to move to a different place, to not just settle where I was. I love to travel. I love to go to places. I used to go to places on that Greyhound bus, but I was still suffering from my addiction,…

  • Is the Massachusetts DCF Failing Children?

    Is the Massachusetts DCF Failing Children?

    FITCHBURG, Mass.—It was only when 5-year-old Jeremiah Oliver’s older sister told her elementary school counselor that she had not seen her brother for many months that authorities realized the boy had gone missing. In July 2013, the boy’s day care provider had alerted his social worker to the fact that his mother had withdrawn the…

  • Vendor Profile: Keith, Part One

    [Editor’s note: Read part two here.] I’m not a poet, but I have poet in me, and I’m not going to sugarcoat anything or pretty anything up to get your acceptance. The bottom line of the story is getting my name back and getting my self back. I’ve experienced homelessness nearly all of my life,…

  • Vendor Profile: Angela

    Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel can seem so far into the future that it is difficult to see the bright side. Angela, a Somerville vendor in her early thirties, is living through dark times. In conversation, Angela does not shy away from talking about the mistakes she’ made and the difficult…