So after my apology for not giving him any money I explained to him that amongst the plants in the granite planters around him was also growing Swiss Chard, an old world vegetable that is grown in Toronto mostly as decoration. As goes for other old world vegetables, I have seen red and white cabbage and also kale in office patio planters, with its sole purpose to be decorative.
However, homeless guy had never heard of Swiss Chard but was nonetheless curious. Not curious enough to get off his little stool to let me show him the actual plants but he did care to know what it tastes like. Maybe he doesn't like beets nor spinach..
Personally I'm not a huge fan of either of them but I do like what's healthy and what's cheap, and well, beets and spinach are both and so is chard from Bloor street. We also grow it in our community garden and there it has one huge advantage over most other plants. People don't know what it is, so they don't steal it.