Early game, Mick will feed you for free if you're broke. Many people accidentally use up all three 'freebies' early on and kind of mess themselves up.

I think the trick, once you played through the game once, is to use the free food to your advantage. I believe his charity is the equivalent of consuming Meat, so basically Mick is saving you a total of $60. This is important early game where money is critical and you dont want to risk getting mugged.

Doing this strategically means you can spend that $60 elsewhere, like 3 sparring matches which can give you a leg up on skills early on when it can make a big difference with faster training or more reliable wins.