JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Sen. Bill Nelson spent his last morning before heading back to Washington helping serve breakfast at Jacksonville's Clara White mission.
Between fiscal cliff negotiations and spending time with his family during the holidays, Nelson made time Wednesday to hand out hot meals to the homeless at the mission that means a lot to him.
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"It's a special place that does a lot of good for this community, and I just want to lend what moral support I can to them and this great community service that they provide," Nelson said.
Clara White has been serving meals to the homeless for over 100 years. They serve breakfast 365 days a year and many who come in over the holidays wouldn't get a Christmas meal if it weren't for charities like this.
"To have someone such as Sen. Bill Nelson come in, it helps to add more insight to the people to know what's going on here," said Ken Covington, Clara White's housing case manager.
Nelson, who served in the military during the Vietnam era, said another great thing about Clara White is they reach out to veterans, to help steer them in the right direction.
"Try to provide them with some normalcy. with some love," Nelson told Channel 4's Elizabeth Campbell. "Some good food, some nourishment, and for an avenue of hope.
Nelson heads back to the nation's capital to face year-end deadline for automatic tax hikes and spending cuts. He said an agreement to avoid the fiscal cliff will be simple if lawmakers come back to town with a spirit of compromise.
"All you have to do is have a willingness in a bipartisan way, in a non-ideological way, to come together in agreement," Nelson said. "There's a group of about 60 or 70 in the House of Representatives who said they wanted it their way or no way. Well, you can't govern this country that way."