In penance for a reference to "gruel" in relation to meals served to homeless on Skid Row, I spent an afternoon and dinner hour getting to know the people at the L.A. Mission who feed the homeless. And eating the food that is so not-gruely. Then, I wrote a column about it, because that's what I do. Here's an excerpt, and a link the to entire column.

Herb Smith, new president of the L.A. Mission, quickly fired off an e-mail to me pointing out that the mission's kitchens serve healthy, hearty meals, not gruel. Then he invited me down for a taste of the real fare served out in five meal shifts every weekday - one breakfast, three lunches and one dinner.

How could I say no? As penance goes, it wasn't a bad deal.

That's how I ended up in the vast stainless-steel kitchen with L.A. Mission

Senior Chef David Thomas a half an hour before dinner on Wednesday. I'm lucky that he is a man of good humor, considering he is about twice my size and the kitchen is filled with sharp implements.

"This is not a soup kitchen," he says. The slabs of beef for that night's meal and the vat of mashed potatoes testify to that.