Colin Kaepernick spent his birthday giving back to the Bay Area’s growing homeless population. Kaepernick, who turned 32 on Sunday (Nov. 3), teamed with his Know You Rights Camp to hand out backpacks filled with snacks, hygiene items and other personal necessities, during a surprise visit to a homeless encampment in West Oakland.
The athlete also brought in a food truck to feed the homeless, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Video of Kaepernick’s act of kindness began circulating social media as he posed for photos with fans and community members. In one video, residents can be seen singing Happy Birthday to Kapernick, led by the mother of Mario Woods, a 26-year-old man killed by officers from the San Francisco Police Department in 2015.
❤️❤️❤️❤️ https://t.co/vb48jwrumi
— KnowYourRightsCamp (@yourrightscamp) November 4, 2019
❤️❤️❤️ https://t.co/6ScoqNhAtD
— KnowYourRightsCamp (@yourrightscamp) November 4, 2019
.@Kaepernick7 spent his 32nd birthday feeding and helping the homeless in Oakland.❤️😇
(via @yourrightscamp)pic.twitter.com/kMu3kZM8mY
— FierceWarriorNStilettos (@InactionNever) November 4, 2019
The issue of homelessness remains at crisis levels in the Bay Area, and across the state of California. More than with 130,000 people in California are battling homelessness, which accounts for a quarter of the national homeless population.
The Bay Area hold the third-largest homeless population in the U.S. , behind New York City and Los Angeles. As of 2017, more than 28,000 people were homeless across the Bay Area.