This coffee shop in Chicago has donated coats and other necessities to hundreds of local homeless people for the 7th year in a row, and stress that their help is needed more than ever given the ongoing pandemic.
Peter Thomas, who owns the shop, and who is also known as 'Pilot Pete', is the brain behind 'Coffee With a Purpose', and runs the entire operation from the back of a 26-foot moving truck. Peter's coffee shop 'Pilot Pete' brewed 40 gallons of coffee in total for their mission, which were handed out to whoever needed a caffeine pick-up.
Travelling to six-locations in the Chicago area, he and his team invited homeless people to come in and take whatever they needed free of charge. This included everything from coats and jackets, to gloves, to bedding and other essentials. These had been acquired from donors over the previous months.
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Pete told the Elmhurst Independent:
"[When]we made this effort, all the shelters were on lockdown. No one was allowed in or out, that is, once you're out, you can't get back in, so there are more and more homeless people… This is a good year to be extra giving."
"I don't know if they're tired of being home or not, but it seems like a lot of kids liked finding something positive to do. Over the Christmas holiday, we were receiving as many as 200 coats a day on average. Everyone was in a giving mood and we are happy to provide a portal to receive donations from the community."
He added:
"It was cool to see the kids taking part. I feel like my generation was the last one to do things like shovelling driveways, that is, doing neighbourly thing. It is nice to see kids come in – they asked a lot of questions about the homeless, asked if it was safe and did it ever feel unsafe performing this service. I had to say in all seven years, I have never felt fearful or threatened, but I understand how people might think about that."
"I love working with coffee as a tool of motivation to fuel and ignite people to soar beyond their expectations and to soar beyond society's expectations. I'm fuelling them and caffeinating them to do something better… something that will make them feel good about themselves so we can all grow together as one coffee family and fly beyond greatness."
It goes to show that sometimes in the hardest of times, we see the absolute best of people, and true altruism at work.
[h/t: Good News Network]
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