Occam’s Razor is a precept of logic and reason which holds that, among conflicting possibilities, the simplest answer to a problem is usually the correct one. Its modern-day equivalent is the old KISS adage to “Keep It Simple, Stupid.”

Nashua officials would do well to keep that in mind as they evaluate the best way to help the Nashua Soup Kitchen & Shelter reach its goal of raising money to renovate the former Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall on Quincy Street, which will serve as the shelter’s new home.

The overall goal of the capital campaign is $2 million, and a pair of anonymous donors have pledged to chip in a total of $100,000 if the organization receives at least $150,000 in pledges from the community by the end of this year.

It’s not the kind of opportunity that comes along often – the chance to turn $150,000 into $250,000 – so not only are aldermen being charitable by offering to use taxpayer money to make sure the soup kitchen reaches its goal by making up any shortage, they’re also being smart. The soup kitchen is a community resource and putting money toward it – especially in a capital campaign like this one – is an investment.

As we pointed out in this space last month, the new building that shelter officials hope to move into sometime next year is three times the size of the current space. That means they’ll be able to bring many of their programs under one roof, serve more people with greater efficiency and, perhaps most important of all, serve them with more dignity. No longer will the city’s poorest residents have to wait in line on the street.

Aldermen-At-Large David Deane, Lori Wilshire and Barbara Pressly sponsored legislation to provide up to $100,000 from the city’s contingency fund to help the soup kitchen meet its target.

Mayor Donnalee Lozeau, however, voiced concerns about the aldermen’s proposal last week in a letter to members of the Budget Review Committee.

Lozeau questioned, among other things, whether the city contingency fund was the right source of money.

A better source of money, she suggested, would be federal Community Development Block Grant money. Unfortunately, CDBG money comes with a lot of strings attached – strings that would probably prevent the soup kitchen from accepting the money, since the strings would wind their way through the organization and probably snarl the entire fundraising campaign.

We think the mayor’s proposal makes the goal – turning $150,000 into $250,000 – much more complicated than it needs to be and violates the principle of simplicity behind Occam’s Razor.

There’s no reason not to use the city contingency money and we urge aldermen to do just that when they meet this month. We agree with Alderman Deane, who said, “I think this money is nothing but a pure investment in an organization that helps provide what the city can’t provide, or if the organization didn’t exist at all, the city would be providing in a much larger, larger capacity.”

There is nothing that says aldermen are obligated to put city money toward the soup kitchen campaign, but we can think of less worthy ways in which the city has spent money, and it would be a shame if the opportunity to realize the extra $100,000 for a good cause fell by the wayside.

Newsletter