Homeless man asked café owner for money — she offered him a job instead and changed his life
She was struggling due to staff shortage, so she asked him the billion-dollar question...
A homeless man walked up to a Minnesota café, begging for cash. Instead of money, the owner, however, responded with an opportunity to rebuild his life. Abigail, the café owner, shared her encounter with this man, who, caught up in bad past choices, was willing to change. Her post on Facebook in 2016 won many hearts with its simplicity.
When Abigail saw him requesting change, she asked why he didn't have a job, only to hear Marcus, the homeless man, share how society had turned its back on him because of his past karma. He said, "Well, I have a lot of felonies, and no one wants to hire me for that, so now I have to turn myself to the streets and get money the only way I know." Marcus confessed he had been stealing or begging for money to survive. That particular day, Abigail was struggling due to staff shortage, so she asked him the billion-dollar question, "Do you want to work? I have a job for you!"
When Marcus heard someone offer him a job despite his troubled past, Abigail recalled, his eyes opened wide, and it was his smile that made her day! "He said I'll do anything for some food. So now, for almost 2 weeks, he has been on time for his two-hour shift... helping take trash, washing dishes, etc.," she said. Moving on, Abis explained that Marcus preferred paying for food that he got from her restaurant because it made him feel good.
Marcus, who had been living on the streets since he was 16, knew the struggle of survival like the back of his hand. So, when Abigail first offered him a sandwich, he wrapped half of it in a foil, ran outside, and gave it to another homeless woman on the street. "That really touched me," she told CBS News. Abigail added, "I do not treat [homeless people] any differently. If restaurants and businesses don't do anything to help the less fortunate, then they become part of the problem." Reacting to the story, Juan Ruiz commented, "Thank you for giving this man another opportunity. Thank you for getting him back on his feet. Hopefully, this incident is just the start of his journey." Similarly, Keisha wrote, "Yes, we do need more people like you, and I wish that most employees would stop looking at old criminal history and, like you said, give people a second chance."
Nichole Minder, commented, "They feel better about themselves 9/10 times when they are given an opportunity to be useful while being able to buy a meal instead of relying on others and hoping they will get to eat that day!" Finding employment, especially with legal charges, can be difficult. In fact, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) says nearly 60% of people who have gotten out of prison don't have jobs. The study that surveyed over 50,000 people who were released from federal prison in 2020 found that 33% of them never got a job at all over four years post-release. Emphasizing it, Pa Xiong said, "Good choice! A lot of times, our systems fail to provide the proper and necessary skills and tools to survive in this society after being released. In fact, the director of a local homeless shelter said at least 90% of the homeless have a disability."
You can follow Abigail (Abis MN) on Facebook for more lifestyle content.
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