AceShowbiz - Actor/director Mark Ruffalo continues to dedicate his spare time to helping the homeless after lending a hand in a soup kitchen as part of his research for new movie "Sympathy for Delicious". "The Kids Are All Right" star takes on double duty in the film, featuring in his own directorial debut as a priest who works for a homeless shelter, and he wanted to make sure he understood all aspects of the role by teaming up with a local Los Angeles charity to volunteer for himself.

Ruffalo took to the streets of Skid Row, one of the city's most notoriously violent homeless districts, to serve up hot meals and admits he found the work so rewarding, he likes to help feed the homeless whenever he can. He tells WENN, "We spent a lot of time feeding the homeless. I had a priest who was my consultant, Father James Dugan, who was a Jesuit homeless activist who had a homeless shelter in Hollywood."

"We spent a lot of time on Skid Row feeding the homeless as well. There's a lot of grace in just a simple act of giving people the barest of necessities, food, water and shelter. It's very moving and quite beautiful and very poetic; they're essentially pretty sweet people who happen to be down on their luck. It's a huge population in Los Angeles and it becomes apparent that it's not hard to get there these days (to become homeless). I'm still involved when I can be with The Love Affiliation (organization which feeds the homeless) in New York."