A small act of kindness like sharing a meal is rare these days, especially with concerns about spreading the coronavirus. However, a North Carolina police officer was seen having lunch with a woman in a shirt that read: “Homeless. The fastest way of becoming nobody,” CNN reports.

Officer Michael Rivers of the Goldsboro Police Department has come to know many of the people he serves, but on Wednesday, he sat down with a woman he had never met before and it was the handwritten message on her shirt that caught his eye.

According to CNN, the 29-year-old officer had his windows down and made eye contact with the woman. At first, they exchanged greetings and he drove away, but Rivers said something in his faith told him to go back to where the woman was and check on her.

"God put it on my heart to get her lunch," Rivers said. "So I turned around and I asked her, 'Hey, did you eat today?' and she said, 'No.'"

Like a true servant of the people, he grabbed some lunch for them from a nearby pizzeria and took a seat next to her in the grass. Over the next 45 minutes, Rivers became familiar with the woman, and she started to open up about her struggles with homelessness.

The woman introduced herself as Michelle and told Rivers that she has a 12-year-old daughter in foster care who is battling liver disease. She also told him that she has a 23-year-old son and a husband, also experiencing homelessness, who was standing on an adjacent street.

A couple passing by posted a photo of the heartwarming moment on Facebook, with the husband writing a caption that praised the local law enforcement officer for his work in the Goldsboro community.

“Cassie was out on her lunch break and observed Goldsboro’s Finest enjoying lunch with a homeless person. Law enforcement does so much for our community, with a lot of it going unnoticed. We see you Goldsboro P.D. Keep up the good work,” he wrote.

Once they finished the pizza and went their separate ways, Rivers said he couldn’t help but think about how similar they are in how they are perceived by society. Rivers said he feels like police are often portrayed in a negative way that focuses the narrative on the “bad apples.” He said people experiencing homelessness are also portrayed poorly because of their situation.

"Homeless people are just people who are down on their luck," Rivers said. "It can happen to anybody."

As an officer with more than nine years of experience in the community, he said he tries to bring support and goodwill to his work.

"I come to work and my method is, 'Who can I bless today? Who can I make smile?’" Rivers said. "I'm not the one that wants to take somebody's father or mother away and put them in jail."

Goldsboro Police Chief Michael West praised Rivers for serving the community well and said the photo is a reminder that police are people, too.

"The circumstances around our job are often an unpleasant call to service, but this picture just shows we're human like anyone else and any chance we get to serve the community and help people, we take that chance," West said. "I'm very fortunate to have Officer Rivers in our department."

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