February 17, 2026 • 60 mins
What if the problem isn’t a lack of compassion—but a lack of expectation? Ruth Thompson was preparing for retirement when a literal dream led her to open Hugs Cafe, an incredible restaurant in McKinney, TX that employs adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In this episode, you’ll learn why lowering the bar hurts people, how raising it changes lives, and what happens when normal folks decide to stop clapping for effort—and start training for excellence.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, everybody, it's Bill Courtney with an army of normal folks.
And we continue now with part two of our conversation
with Ruth Thompson, right after these brief messages from our
generous sponsors. Okay, now you're open, that's right. So I
(00:32):
read that once you open, you started to notice changes
in the people who worked there. Tell us about that.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yeah, miss Temka, I'm going to go back to Miss Temkaz.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Was she one of the first.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
She was one of the first. Absolutely, I'll give you
a little little background of what our business model started
off as and how it changed. Okay, our business model
was going to be that we will hire them, employ
them for a year to give them great experience, and
(01:06):
then we would help them get a job somewhere else.
I cannot tell you the number of staff who sat
across from me after a year with tears in their
eyes and said, you're not going to make me leave,
are you? Our business model changed, and Miss Tamika is
(01:27):
one of them. Again. She was so so, so quiet,
but she got in that kitchen and she took charge.
A fun story that I love telling about her. She
(01:48):
just wouldn't engage, and she still won't engage, just start
a conversation. She does her work and that's what she
is supposed to do, and she loves her work. If
I get in.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Socialization is an issue for autistic folks.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
It is it is. If I get in the kitchen,
she's really funny. She'll roll her eyes at me. She
knows I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing anymore.
I don't go in the kitchen anymore. But there was
a fun story about her. Is everybody had my phone
(02:28):
number and our restaurant manager at the time his name
was Maria, and I got a phone call one day
from Tamika. This is a woman who would not engage
in conversation. Hi, miss Ruth, this is Ta Meka. I
(02:49):
just want to let you know that I left my
paste up on the table that's near the front door.
Would you please take care of that for me. I
know that your listeners may think that's well, okay, that's
a conversation, not a conversation she would have. And I'm going,
(03:13):
oh my gosh, somebody else has got to hear this.
And I told her, I said, I'm not at the cafe.
You'll need to call Maria and let her know and
I'm so excited that this woman is now taking charge
(03:33):
of her life and calling to let her know, let
somebody know that something was left there. That is, this
is huge for someone on the spectrum. And as soon
as she hung up, I quickly doll Maria and I said,
you're going to get a phone call and you're not
going to believe who it is or what it's going
to be said, but just listen. And she immediately after
(03:57):
she talked to me because she called, and we're both
on the phone because this woman has taken charge of
her life.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
I read. Confidence doesn't come from someone telling you you're amazing.
It comes from doing something hard over and over again
and realizing you can do it. That kind of speaks
to exactly what's been What started going on there is that,
like you said, you didn't treat these folks like mascots, right,
(04:28):
You trained them, you held them accountable, You trained them
for excellence, and you had them repeat over and over
again until they mastered something. And so their confidence as
a result of being managed, treated and cared for that way,
manifested itself in self confidence that they probably have never
(04:52):
had never It's such a broad term. Folks with intellectual disabilities.
I don't I don't even know how to say this right,
But there are levels of folks with disabilities. So what
disabilities are we talking about? And what levels of disability
(05:15):
because there's a broad range of folks that are really
quote high functioning but can't function completely alone, down to
folks like the twelve year old you saw in the stroller.
Kind of what's the spectrum of folks that work for you?
(05:35):
And what do those disabilities look like?
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Sure, and that's why it's called a spectrum because it
is very broad, and we don't look at what they
can't do. We look at what they can do. The
biggest concern that we have to look at when we're
hiring someone new is behaviors, which sometimes does go along
(06:03):
with someone maybe on the autism spectrum. And what we
do is we do get references from previous teachers or
therapists or things like that. We do have some who,
rather than saying lower functioning, we say needs more support.
(06:25):
We do have some that, and my husband calls some
of them legacy employees because they were part of my
class and I couldn't say no when we started hiring everyone.
We have one young man who works only on Saturdays,
(06:48):
but he and he's been with us for ten years.
He repeats the same mantra every Saturday. I had fun
at my house last night. I'm going to watch a
movie tonight. I'm going to go to the movies with
my sister. This is my first time working this day.
(07:12):
And so that's his mantra all day long. He does
have to we do have community volunteers, and he has
to have a community volunteer with him at all times.
But he busses tables and he knows what he's supposed
to do. He just needs more support.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
So from there all the way up to pretty high
functioning folks like Tamika.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Tamika Danny who can go out and speak like nobody's business.
We had him speak. We just opened in Dallas, but
we were introducing Hugs to Dallas people last year and
(07:57):
we had a luncheon in Dallas and we took Danny
with us. I spoke, my husband, Chris spoke, our CEO spoke,
and Danny spoke. And Danny started off with and he
has this monotone voice. Okay, So I'm going to try
to do Danny, but he says, okay, folks, I don't
(08:17):
know what kind of audience I have, so I'm gonna
start off with a joke and then I'll decide what
I can say for the rest of the time.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
I don't remember that it was hilarious exactly.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I don't remember his joke, but everyone laughed and he said, Okay,
I got a pretty good audio. He is hilarious. He
is hilarious. And he will start telling his story. And
while Danny has been working for us, his mother passed away,
(08:54):
and he talks about that and how much it means
to him to have a job, and how much it
means to him to be an ambassador. He will tell
everyone that he's the number one ambassador. We don't have
a number one.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
But if Danny wants to do, yes, Danny, he's number one.
He's number one. That's funny. Yes, here's a thought. I
grew my business from nothing, literally started in two thousand
and one with seventeen thousand dollars winging in a prayer
and dare I say also a dream. Something I learned
(09:34):
pretty quickly is success brings its own issues. You think
you got issues when you start, then you have success,
and then there's more issues. One of the issues I
read that you had with your success is that you
had more applicants than you had spaces. Tell us about that.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
We did. We hired everyone and then we started getting
more applicat and more applicants. The special needs world is
very close knit, and we were getting applications from people
down in Dallas. We're forty five minutes from Dallas. But
(10:16):
people who wanted their loved ones to have a job,
or loved ones who wanted to have a people with autism,
people with down syndrome who wanted to have a job.
We had a stack a mile long of applicants. That's
(10:39):
when we said, we've got to do more. What can
we do? So in twenty eighteen we started Hugs Greenhouse.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
I know, it's so funny.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
So I visited an organization down in near Katie, Texas,
which is near Houston, and it's called Brookwood. It started
out as a it starated as a little day program,
but now it's a huge residential I think they've got
(11:13):
like seventy acres. It's been in existence for fifty years
and they have day programs where anyone with a disability,
regardless of what the disability is, they do pottery and
they have a horticulture program and they make things by hand,
(11:39):
so it's kind of like a workshop. But because they're
not with the public, we are public facing, which makes
us not a workshop. But had god dad and visited
them and saw that they had this incredible horticulture program,
Well why can't we do that? And so I, okay,
(12:04):
I decided, let's I don't know how to grow things.
I did grow up on a farm in Georgia, but
I have killed plants more than not. My poor daddy
would just roll over in his grave the way I
(12:24):
kill plants. But somebody out there has to know how
to do this. I put a Facebook post out that
this is what I want to do. I want to
start a horticulture program with hugs. I don't know how
to do it, but I'm going to have a meeting.
I'm going to have a meeting on this night, at
(12:45):
this time at the cafe, and I hope that somebody
somewhere wants to help us with this and will join me.
I had three people who provide flowers to the Dallas
Arboretum show. I had another gentleman who had a was
(13:06):
fourth generation flower grower. He was there and then our
handyman showed up and I'm asking them what do I need?
And they're telling me, Okay, first of all, you need land.
It needs to be zoned agriculture. It needs to be
outside of the city limits. It needs to be here,
(13:28):
and you need to do this. Okay, well, where are
we going to find that? Give me some ideas. Our
handyman said, our house is on thirty two acres in
the country, zoned agriculture. We're in no one's etj We
want you to put it there zero dollars a year.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Unreal. Yes, so hugs greenhouse or I think that's what it's.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Called, Hugs greenhouse. And then okay, well, I don't know
how to grow flowers.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Well, the point is some of these applicants you couldn't
put to work in the in the restaurant exactly greenhouse.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Right, they got it.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
They need a job, which led to.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Well, let me finish telling you about the greenhouse. I'm sorry,
but yeah, I'm going Okay. At a restaurant, you've got
to have someone there at all times with a manager certification.
Do you need something like that? In a greenhouse? You do?
You need someone who is insecticide and pesticide certified. Okay,
(14:37):
where are we going to get this person? In Texas?
A and M. And they were going to, Okay, yeah,
maybe you need somebody a new graduate from A and M.
Bill Crump, who was fourth generation nursery grower or flower grower,
had retired sold all of his and he said, Ruth,
I'm tired of being retired. I want to run it
(14:57):
for you. Unbelievable, said thank you God.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Yeah, so the greenhouse started on Freeland and a free
operator who had all the stuff you needed.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
We do pay Bill a salary.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Probably, I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Right.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Unbelievable, unbelievable, And that led to I don't know that
the Hugs Home Cooking is that?
Speaker 2 (15:26):
What was? That's when we started Hugs Home Cooking because
there were other you know, we've got this list of
people who want a job. We don't have any other
opportunities for employment. We don't want to get into the
day program situation. But what we can do is offer
(15:50):
a class every now and again. So we had other
We have others that come in now once a month
and take a cooking class from a classic trained chef.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Wow, I know, I know it's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
They love it. I mean they learn how to do
chicken cord on blue and they love it.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
We'll be right back. Okay. So here you go. You've
(16:39):
got your cafe, you've got the greenhouse, you've got the
home cooking thing. Your dream is turning into reality. Yeah, certainly,
now it's time to kind of chill. No. No, So
I don't know what's next, but I think the training
(17:01):
Academy's next. Is that? What's next?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
The first training Academy.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
The first training Okay, take us through that and why
and what it means and all that. Okay, I and
we're talking last year.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Actually the training Academy. That's twenty twenty two. We started
the first training Academy.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
And why did we do that? Because we had this
long list of applicants and we can't just keep saying.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
No, I was, actually you could, no.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
I was. I joined the board. I was asked to
join the board of Directors of the Greater Dallas, Texas
Restaurant Association. And I keep hearing the number one challenge
from other restaurants is staffing. I said, guys can train them.
(18:01):
I can train my people. All you have to do
is treat them with kindness and respect. Not Hell's kitchen,
but kindness and respect and you've got an employee for life.
And I said them before, I hope, and.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
I got to ask something. Yeah, pragmatically, I'm running a
restaurant with fire and gas and hot grease and knives
and slippery floors and hot steam and a public that
all of that screams liability to me. And then I'm yeah,
(18:44):
I need staff and I need well trained staff. But
did any of them. Did you get any pushback on
can quote they end quote really handle this kind of
work and some fear. I mean, I can see pragmatically
that you might get pushed back from that.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Initially I still do. Yes, I got pushback. I still do.
But we do have our job placement people who love
what we do. I will name some. Jason Stali loves
what we do and hire our people. There's a convention center,
Irving Convention Center. They hire our people. We have found
(19:28):
that schools, school cafeterias hire our people.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Well that's interesting. So you're part of this thing, yes,
this greater You're on the board of Greater something rustaurant
associate sorryiation, Ye got it. They say they need help,
and you say, well, all these people that I can't hire.
Let me start a training academy. I'll train them and
then find them jobs elsewhere in the same thing. So
(19:54):
how to go?
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Didn't have one person that said I want to be
your first first. Yeah, it is still a struggle. And
I've been on that board for three years now. Uh,
it's still a struggle. I'm also on the Texas Restaurant
Association board. It's still a struggle. But I'm not giving up.
(20:19):
I'm not going to give up.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
But it's happening.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
It is happening. Yes, there are restaurants who are hiring
them and and but they're not just rolling silverware. Now
we hire, we we train them within the training academy.
They leave there with their food handler certification certificate. They
(20:43):
leave there knowing having been trained by the local fire
department how to put out a fire. I didn't know
how to do that until we started Hug's Training Academy
and they learn not safety.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
How many people in this Hugs Training Academy?
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Yeah right, Neil, our one m McKinney can only handle
six students per semester. We're building a building. Then that's good.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Yeah, But that's the funny thing is the one in McKinney. So, yeah,
that's the twenty twenty five thing.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
I guess twenty twenty okay, twenty twenty two we started
the one m m kinny. Twenty twenty three. I think
twenty twenty five is when we started building a building.
We started Hugs Training Academy in Dallas in twenty twenty three.
(21:41):
I believe it is.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
What are you building?
Speaker 2 (21:44):
We're building a world headquarters.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
That's hilarious. What is a world headquarters for? Where you
need a world headquarters for a cafe?
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Oh? My God, will tell Okay, so we have Okay,
now we've got Hugs Training Academy and McKinney six students
Hugs Training Academy in Dallas.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
How many students we can have up.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
To eight there?
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
When we open Hugs Training Academy in our new building,
we will be able to train up to thirty two
students per semester in this building. We will move our
restaurant into the building that we will own outright, we're
(22:34):
now paying rent. We will own it.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
So the cafe will be there, still in McKinnie.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Still in McKinney. Cafe will be there. Training Academy will
be there in a different. We'll have a training kitchen
and we can do twelve in the kitchen. We can
do three classrooms with twelve in each one, and they'll
move back and forth between the class rooms. And we'll
(23:01):
have our corporate offices in this building. It's a thirteen
thousand square foot building.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Good grief, Yeah, and a restaurant and it'll have a
rest sounds expensive.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Ten million dollars.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Where's the ten million dollars coming from?
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Oh, it's coming from individuals, corporations, grants, foundations.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
That's a hell of a long way from eight grand
from a bank sale.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Isn't it though? But we have we right now have
six hundred and fifty thousand left to rays of that
ten million, and we'll have it. We've got to have
it by March first. And we opened a cafe.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
How many people do you? How many people with disabilities
are now being served by this dream?
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Yeah? We have a total of one hundred and seven employees.
Ninety one of them are mission based employees on seventy
percent more than yeah, one hundred and seven ninety one,
ninety ninety, Yes, our mission based employees. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
How busy is it? So? When I was reading about you,
I got online, okay, and I just googled Hugs Cafe McKinney.
So I don't even know what your website is, which
you'll tell us later. It's WWW's dots something, but I
just googled it. I came right up. I hit website,
and the first thing I went to, because I'm a
(24:37):
fat this is the menu. Yes, yeah, the sandwiches look great.
I mean the food looks really really good. I actually
wondered what the soup of the day was. I said,
soup of the day, and I'm like, going to what
soup of the day is today? And I was opening
it with something like corn shower to taste soup because
I love those, okay, or maybe gumbo and know it
(25:00):
had It looks like you're open for breakfast and late
lunch up until like three, so it's a it's a
it's a it's a diner. It's a breakfast lunch type place.
The food looked fantastic. You had pictures of your employees
up there. I assume some employees. I think they were
all employees. I assume some had disabilities and some did not.
(25:23):
I don't know. There was a video of a dude
very meticulously chopping an onion. Which kind of went to
my head was you know, so many people would not
even let this guy near a knife, thinking he cut
his fingers off. But your idea is no, let's teach
him how to do this, let's raise the expectations. And
(25:46):
so as I'm looking at at this whole.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Thing, no one thing, what's that, Haiti Beth peach gobbler.
Oh you just looked at us.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
So Alex looked at turkey, bacon, shddarch and housemade peachicutney.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
I know good. So so as I'm looking at all this,
what came to my mind was my roots. I'm a
business owner. Profits are a necessary measure of any organization's success,
and I'm just a dying to know how many people
(26:22):
eat here daily? Is it profitable as a standalone business?
How do you drive traffic? I'd love to know the
business side of just the cafe, not the rest of
the stuff, but just the cafe.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Sure we are a five oh one C three organization, right,
we do need donations to keep us sustainable. That being said,
I can guarantee you twenty twenty six we will be
sustainable without being a nonprofit.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Don't make a profit as long as you put that
profit back into the non profit. Yes, so you can
make money.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Yes, we have not made money in the sense of
making a profit to the rush, just the restaurant. That
being said, with all of our other entities mentoring other
organizations across the country, we have affiliates and we're talk
(27:23):
about that that adds to our revenue. But the cafe
we know will be sustainable this year on its own,
on its own.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
You hear cafes. They have one in Dallas too. Yeah,
we're getting there.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
So so in twenty twenty six, the cafe itself will
pay its employees, handle its operational cost, and turn a profit.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Yes, it's a win win. You're helping people who otherwise
would have almost nothing to do in their lives, and
under the guise of raising the bar, these folks are
actually going to be not only doing jobs, but running
a profitable business. Yes, that's astounding. That's pretty incredible because
(28:17):
I've talked to a lot of people who've done a
lot of things, and they do things to raise revenue,
but it's very rare that those things actually can stand
on their own right, and so.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Many restaurants in order to raise revenue they'll cut employees.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Doing that. That's your whole.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
That's why we're there.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
You're right, we'll be right back. Okay. So cafe Originally
(29:04):
cafe was singular now cafes as or so where else?
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Okay, We just opened in December of twenty twenty five
Hugs Cafe in Dallas.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
How many people work there?
Speaker 2 (29:17):
So excited. There's twenty three that work there.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Where where it is?
Speaker 2 (29:23):
In? Yes, there is an organization called the Meadows Foundation
and they're very very sortive supportive of lots of nonprofits
in the Dallas area. In fact, they have this huge campus.
I don't know how large it is, but they have
offices and buildings. They're old homes that have been restored
(29:45):
on their campus and that's the office for these different nonprofits.
One is Treasured Vessels, which helps women who have been trafficked.
There all sorts of things. They he came to us.
They have given us several grants. They came to us
(30:05):
and said, we have a building, an empty building on
our campus. We would love to have a Hugs Cafe there.
We need this in Dallas, and we're paying nothing for
rent for ten years and we open up and get going.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
And now people on the campus have a place to
go to lunch.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Absolutely, it's gorgeous. And I know you know about Cafe Momentum.
They're going to be building right across the street from us.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Yeah, it's interesting. It's interesting that Chad and Cafe Momentum.
For those of you listening who haven't watched that episode,
just go back to Chadouser Cafe Momentum, who also has
a restaurant, and he is a classically trained chef, he is,
and his place is staff by.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
Justice Involved Youth.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Yeah, juvenile offenders.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Juvenile offenders who have found their way out of difficult
circumstances through a love of the culinary work. And Chad's
restaurant is amazing too. And now he's going to be
operating near you, Yes, on the same campus.
Speaker 4 (31:21):
Actually cool updaking. We've not updated listeners on it. He's
now in Atlanta. Yeah, he's all over the place.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
He is, and it's so sweet. He was he was
at our grand opening at the Dallas location and gave
me a big hug. I said, you know, we just
have different populations. We do the same thing, just different populations.
And he said, Ruth, you wouldn't believe how similar our
populations are.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Oh that's interesting, yes, because of Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
You know, it's interesting to get in trouble. Maybe there's
a reason some of them get in trouble, but they've
never been diagnosed.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
So now we're Huggs McKinnie, Hugs, Dollas, Hugs, Greenhouse, Hugs
training facility, and hugs like home cooking. I say that right, yes,
And then you said something about and now Hugs World
where the Huggs mckinniy will be located. But you also
(32:21):
said something about affiliates. Yeah, it almost sounds like Chick
fil A's franchising over here. What what tell me what
is an affiliate? And tell me what they are and
where they are and what's developed there, because that's incredible.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Yeah. I can't tell you the number of people that
have found out about us across the country that have
called me over the years. Can I visit with you? Can?
Can you tell me how to do this? How did
you do it? And I would spend hours on the phone.
People would would come and visit. I'd let them, you know,
(32:58):
stay in we're in the cafe. And we decided, you know,
we can help more people. We can't be everywhere. We
would love to be everywhere. We can't be everywhere, but
we can help others. I mean, it was getting questions
from how do you put together a board of directors?
(33:19):
How do you file for a five oh one c?
Speaker 3 (33:21):
Three?
Speaker 2 (33:23):
How do you decide what you're going to sell or produce?
Every single question that there is. So what we're doing
now is we're licensing our We wrote our own curriculum.
We're licensing our curriculum. We're also licensing how we did everything.
(33:43):
And this is another revenue stream for us. We have
affiliates now, we have lily Pad in Ridgeland, Mississippi. We have.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Yes and I know jacksonsis there.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Yes, Yeah, Gosh, I can't remember the names of all
of them. There's one in Arkansas. They have not opened yet.
I think they're in Fayetteville. Uh, they haven't opened yet.
They wanted a Hugs there. But now it's a husband and.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
Wife Pathway cafe that's in Springdale.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
That may northwest Arkansas.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Some neat couple. Then we've got Illinois.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
For people just listening. Bill is now going in for a.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Second the rest of it. While you're while you're shut up,
go ahead, you keep not you shut up A shut.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Up, I'll talk since you have cooking out. Uh, we
have Kischette k E s h E T in Chicago.
They have been around. They're an organization that's been around
for years and years and years. They have a kitchen
but they never used it or a restaurant kind of space.
(35:03):
And they came to us and said, how do we
do this? So we're mentoring them. We have a gentleman
in Colorado who uses that F word franchise, and we're
we're still trying to figure out. You know, how do
(35:25):
you govern I mean, Chad not going to have a
long talk about this, but how do you govern a
nonprofit that's in another state? And I mean this gentleman
came to us and he said, I've got the money,
I don't want to run it. Well, okay, so we're
working on that.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
You're supposed to be retired ten years space. Yeah, I know,
it's incredible.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
Looks like Tallahassee.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Oh yes, yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
And then what's the Super Duper Cookie in Dallas?
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Okay, super Duper Cookie Company. It's right off of the
s m U University SMU campus and that is a
gentleman who wanted to do make these cookies and higher
our population. But he didn't know how to work with them.
(36:19):
They're an incredible family. They opened this super duper cookie
company and ran it for a few months, and now
they've come to us and said, you know, can you
run this forest? And so.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
With them, Wait one more.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
My Possibilities has been on the podcast. Charmaine was here.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
Oh, Charmaine was here. Wonderful. They had this beautiful campus.
I've known Charmain forever and a day. In fact, she
My Possibilities before they had their big, beautiful building used
to bring students to take cookiing classes from me.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
That makes sense. Yes, everybody needs to go to that
episode too, if you want some perspective on that. It's
crazy how some of these things are intersecting. I didn't
really know that before Magie.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Why not work together? A lot of nonprofits just look
at other nonprofits as.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Competition, especially for funding.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Yes, but why not work together, especially when it comes
to grants, because you're asked who do you collaborate with? Well,
My Possibilities has this beautiful kitchen and they were doing
nothing with it. They came to us and said, you know, culinary,
(37:43):
we don't We don't even know how to hire for culinary.
We're now running there. It's called Hugs Cafe at My Possibilities.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
That's unbelievable, I know.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
And we're training there are people the.
Speaker 3 (37:58):
College campus for people who haven't heard.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Yes, so yeah, the curriculum that my possibilities is insane.
They've got ye under closer classes. I remember going down
the curriculum actually on the podcast and just reading some
of them, and I was flabbergasted at what.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
My hospitality fabulous program.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
So the culinary thing is now Hugs at My Possibilities. Yeah,
why wouldn't it be so? Over the next five years,
your plans are to serve more than six hundred and
fifty individuals, established twenty five nonprofit mentorships, create ten curriculum
licensing partnership, and open three new Hugs Cafes where I
(38:40):
can tell you you're not going to tell.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Me I wanna well, actually I do think well death.
We'll be in Colorado, probably Colorado Springs, phenomenal. We will
probably be somewhere in north west Florida. Got it, And
we're working on another one that's phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
I know. Do you pinch yourself a little?
Speaker 2 (39:06):
I do? I do? I will tell you I'm saying.
I don't mind saying it to the world. I'm seventy
one years old. No, I'm seventy two. Crap. I was
a little more energetic when I was younger. We have
(39:29):
a CEO. Her name is Laurence Smith, and I can't
say enough about her.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Do you feel like you're letting your baby go?
Speaker 2 (39:38):
No, I feel like I'm now able to walk side
by side with her. And because she has the energy,
she has the quick thinking, she has all that we need.
I told her one day, you remind me so much
(39:59):
of myself when I was in my late thirties.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
You know, I've been sitting across from me for an
hour and forty three minutes so far, and it's not
like you ain't spra You're doing all right. I hope
it's seventy two. I'm rocket like you are because you're yeah,
a big smile and you are quick thinking in all
of that. But I get it. You have to plan
(40:23):
for success.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
You do have to plan for secession. And she's got it,
and she leads this organization. She's she has been the one.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
So five years from now, yeah, maybe you actually do
take your overdue retirement. That you were supposed to take
a decade ago. Maybe not, maybe you've at least just
worked four hours a day. But at whatever point you
are sitting in your recliner in your great room with Chris,
(41:01):
five years from now, what will success look like to
you for this enterprise that was a dream only ten
years ago? What do you what do you want from it?
What is your what is your dream now? For it?
Speaker 2 (41:15):
I want to be making a change in lives across
this country. Well, actually I'm already I've already reached across
the world. I helped a young man in Kazakhstan.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
I'm kidding, no.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
His name is Malin m may U l I N
And I just reached out to him again. I haven't
heard from him for a while, but he now has
three and I forget what they're called. But he started.
He heard about us through Upworthy did a story on us.
(41:53):
He heard about us, and this is like the year
after We're open, and he wanted to do something in
his university campus, same thing. And we spent hours upon
hours on the phone, probably in the middle of the night,
(42:14):
because it's a different type.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
The other's are the work literally eleven hours away.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
Yeah, and he started something on his university campus. One
thing he did is he called me one time and
we were talking. He said, do you pay them? And
I said.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
Absolutely jobs, Yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
We pay them, and we're very proud of the fact
that we don't just pay them minimum wage. We pay
them higher because many states you can pay them some
minimum wage.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
Most states you can pay people disability. And I get
the intention there is to have something for them to
do and to be employed. But if you take a
page from your book, you would argue that you're patronizing
them and you're only asking them to roll silverware. You
(43:14):
would say, from what I've met you now, is that
pay them above them wage and expect more from them
and watch them grow.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
Yes. Yes, So I told him, I said, will you
not pay them? And his reply was, you have to
understand in our country, a person with a disability has
fewer rights than a criminal. They have the right to work,
they do not have the right to get paid to work,
(43:44):
which is anyway. I also, yeah, I also helped a
young woman in Egypt open something, no kidding, And there
was someone in Ireland that I have helped years five years.
There should be somewhere in every state in these United States.
(44:07):
That's employing people with disabilities and giving them meaningful employment,
not rolling silverware. And I'll rest easy and learn to knit.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
I get that you what you did in Colorado, and
I get the grocery store experience that kind of led
to all of this. But is there something in your
you mentioned earlier, you didn't have anybody in your family
that has intellectual disabilities. Where does the sense of service
(44:44):
come from for you?
Speaker 2 (44:48):
You know, that's interesting. My mother was a nurse. I
think I told you. I grew up on a farm
in south central Georgia. She was a nurse, daddy was
a farmer, and she was all always giving back. But
it was a small town and everyone was always helping
each other. I think I just have that instinct. I
(45:14):
just think it's there that that's what we're supposed to
be here to do, is help others. That's where my
passion is.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
We'll be right back. You've always been clear that the
work did not begin with expertise. You didn't know anything
(45:53):
about it, which we talked about earlier. But you you
don't have a background in restaurants. You didn't have really
a plan. But there's a quote here that Alex provided
that I love and I want you to talk about it.
People assume someone else is going to do it. Something
(46:13):
we say all the time is you know when you
see all the abject despair and loss and you think, boy,
somebody ought to do something about that. One day we
ask who that was, somebody what's wrong with you? And
you say, people assume someone else is going to do it.
When everyone assumes someone else will handle it, nothing gets handled.
(46:34):
You don't have to open a cafe, you don't have
to start a nonprofit. You can look at what's in
front of you. You can decide not to ignore it.
People wait until they feel ready. Responsibility doesn't wait for permission.
Are you willing to step in even if you don't
know how this ends? When we stop expecting people to contribute,
(46:56):
we shouldn't be surprised when communities are fractured. If you
expect nothing, you'll get nothing. When you expect someone to
show up to contribute to matters, something changes.
Speaker 2 (47:09):
That is.
Speaker 1 (47:12):
Dead right in my opinion. And you and I sing
off the same sheet of music. The way we sing
the song may sound a little different, but it's the
same thing. To me. It sounds like you feel a
responsibility because you see a need, Can you just kind
of speak to that at the end of our conversation
(47:34):
here so that our listeners maybe can grab some of
your passion and your conviction and now, after ten years,
some of your wisdom.
Speaker 2 (47:46):
It took me years to find what my passion was,
and I was for many, many, many years, I was
always saying, God, what am I here for? I've got
my wonderful family, beautiful children, wonderful husband, Why am I here?
(48:09):
And just being around people with disabilities. The last job
I had in Colorado, it was I knew that was
it and somebody had to do something. And then when
(48:29):
we moved to Texas and there were so few opportunities.
There are many ways that people can help others, and
you know, there's the homeless, there are food, insecurities, and
(48:50):
so many people are seen that, which is wonderful. But
sometimes you've got to step out of that box and
see what other needs there are. And when I saw
this need and God said, You've got to do it,
(49:14):
nobody else is going to do it unless that one
person does, and I just knew and felt that in
my gut, in my heart, one person.
Speaker 1 (49:30):
I am. It's impossible not to hear your story and
admire it.
Speaker 2 (49:35):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (49:36):
It's impossible not to meet you and admire you and
be taken with the fact that you're seventy two. You
carry seventy two extraordinarily well, thank you. I don't know
who wrote this, maybe it was Alex, but it is
so true that admiration can be a way of opting out.
(49:57):
In other words, many people have told me that, you know,
the work I've done in Inner City with football and
whatever is inspiring and blah blah blah blah blah, as
if those words, as if admiration or accepting inspiration is enough,
(50:19):
and by just saying something nice, they opt out of
the work. And that may sound a little tough to
some people, but I do feel that way. When I
read that, I thought, that's interesting. Who wrote that? Do
you write that?
Speaker 3 (50:31):
Honest answer, CHATCHVT did, CHATCHVT did.
Speaker 1 (50:36):
Chat GPT wrote that? And I mean.
Speaker 3 (50:41):
Another extension of your line too. We feel like it
erases our own responsibility.
Speaker 1 (50:46):
That's what I mean, yeah, is And so while I
appreciate the kind of comments and stuff, it is tempting
to hear a story like yours and admire and maybe
write you one hundred dollars check and assume that that
means you're part of the process of doing something good
(51:09):
because you say, wow, that's nice. Yeah, but nothing replaces action,
and this whole show, if anything, is a call to
action to normal people by highlighting stories like yours and
hopefully inspiring people to not just be inspired, but to act,
(51:30):
to not think because they listen to this show that
it allows them to opt out of the actual work. Yeah,
do you have a call to action for those that
are hearing you today? How would you inspire people to
get off the sidelines?
Speaker 2 (51:46):
Just get off your button? Do it? And I make
it sound so easy. No, it wasn't easy. Where have
there been times over these years that you would find
me in the corner in a few position. Absolutely, But
you know you've just even especially those of faith, trust,
(52:13):
trust and get up and do it.
Speaker 1 (52:18):
You've told me you felt people all over the world,
and you keep doing stuff and you've got the new young,
younger version of you come along that you're meentoring and training.
I know there's website because I looked at it, But
what's it.
Speaker 2 (52:31):
Called huggscafe dot org org.
Speaker 1 (52:36):
H ugscafe dot org.
Speaker 2 (52:38):
Yes, and hugs is hope, understanding grace and success.
Speaker 1 (52:43):
Hope understanding grace and success cool acronym.
Speaker 3 (52:47):
Do people give hugs tough?
Speaker 2 (52:49):
We have mission based staff that chase you down the
street if you walk out the door without a hug.
Speaker 1 (52:57):
Oh my gosh. If somebody let's get in touch with
you and wants to be one of these new locations
or work with you, or support you or hear more,
how did they get in touch with you?
Speaker 2 (53:09):
Your website which is hugscafe dot org.
Speaker 1 (53:13):
Can they find you there?
Speaker 2 (53:15):
There is a info and info at hugscafe dot org. Actually,
if they want to send an email that goes to
someone and if they want to talk to me, they
will let me know.
Speaker 1 (53:28):
Ruth Thompson everybody the founder of Hugs Cafe McKinney, Texas,
who clearly is willing to talk to folks and help
him out. So that's how you get to them. Ruth,
close us out with You've told us about who's the speaker, Danny.
He told me. It told us about Daniel, and you've
told us about in the kitchen Tamika. Yes, give us
(53:53):
one of the stories that when you're laying in bed
and your head's pounding you've had enough still makes you smile.
Speaker 2 (54:00):
I've got a great one. Her name is Kathy. Kathy
has cerebral palsy. Kathy started with us, and what could
Kathy do? Kathy has the constricted muscles in her hands,
a little problem with her gait. At the time that
she started with us, all of our sandwiches are toasted.
(54:24):
She would man the toaster, and her job some of
our jobs, we we carved the jobs to meet a
person's abilities. Rather than expecting Kathy to make the scent,
toast the bread, make the sandwich, put the sides on
(54:46):
to me, I can do that. Kathy's job was to
toast the bread. She coined herself the bread queen. And
when we first started training, I got it stool for
Kathy to sit on. And Kathy looked at me and
she said, nobody else in here has a stool. I'm
(55:10):
not going to have a stool. And she worked. She
no longer works for us. She's now moving to Tennessee.
I believe to be near her her brother. But she said,
nobody else has a stool. I'm like everybody else. I'm
gonna do my job standing here. Kathy and Tamika and
(55:36):
Danny make me smile and cry at the same time.
Speaker 1 (55:43):
That's phenomenal. You know, There's one other thing I want
to say that I'm gonna I'm gonna ask you to
speak to a little bit, is people with intellectual disabilities
are a blessing and a joy done. My brother in
(56:04):
law has taught me that. Yeah, it's also taught me
there are a lot.
Speaker 2 (56:07):
Of work.
Speaker 1 (56:09):
I have to believe that. Not only is this therapeutic
and amazing for the confidence and abilities of people with
disabilities that can find a purpose and work for you
and make an income and be proud and learn and
all of that, but oh my gosh, it must be
heaven sent for their families.
Speaker 2 (56:29):
Have you.
Speaker 1 (56:31):
Gotten that? Have you had those type of conversation with
family members?
Speaker 2 (56:35):
Most definitely tell me.
Speaker 1 (56:37):
What that looks like.
Speaker 2 (56:38):
We have a mother who came to me three years
in her son had been working for us and sobbing,
absolutely sobbing, and she said, Ruth, I never thought there
was ever going to be anything for him. Is Marcus?
(57:01):
I always wondered what's gonna happen to Marcus? And she said,
now maybe we can think about getting Marcus an apartment.
She said, there's he has a purpose. He gets up
(57:23):
his dad makes his lunch the night before to take
to work. Marcus with his dad, makes his lunch at
night to take to work. He has a purpose.
Speaker 1 (57:37):
Not only does Marcus has hope, his parents do exactly.
Speaker 2 (57:41):
We have Jerry, who is this big teddy bear with
down syndrome. And Jerry you can't always understand what he says,
but his mother, he's been with us from the beginning.
His mother, Sherry said, whenever they go anywhere, Jerry will
(58:01):
tell people he has a job, and that just changes
her life.
Speaker 1 (58:10):
Ruth Thompson, everybody, founder of Hugs Cafe and Mackenzie Texas
and now World Headquarters and all of the other things
you've heard about an extraordinary woman with an extraordinary story,
doing extraordinary work and changing lives of not only the
people that she has disabilities with those in her family
and I assure you the volunteers who interact with her population. Ruth,
(58:32):
I can't tell you how much I appreciate you coming
to Memphis and sharing your story. You are an inspiration
and it's an honor to meet you.
Speaker 2 (58:42):
It's a pleasure to meet you. And now I'm teary Terry,
I thank you.
Speaker 1 (58:47):
I don't know how you could listen to this and
not tear up a little bit. Ruth, amazing story. Not
bad for seventy two. You can come back when you're
one hundred and forty four. Thank you, Thank you, Bye bye.
Speaker 3 (59:00):
Can you order the cookies online?
Speaker 2 (59:02):
Yes? You can?
Speaker 1 (59:02):
Oh, heck yeah, I guess we're not signed off yet.
How do you go to the website?
Speaker 2 (59:08):
Go to the website. You can order cookies online.
Speaker 1 (59:10):
Well, let me just tell you the wedding cake cookie
is worth order. And I'm taking my backs home to Lisa.
She's gonna equal and I know she's gonna love it
all right. Thanks for being Thank you so much, and
thank you for joining us this week. If Ruth Thompson
has inspired you in general, or better yet, take action
(59:32):
by visiting Hug's Cafe, donating to them, rallying an army
of normal folks to start something like it in your community,
or something else that is entirely different but you feel
convicted about let me know. I really want to hear
about it. You can write me anytime at Bill at
(59:52):
normal Folks dot us and I will respond. If you
enjoyed this episode as a look likes to say, share
it for and on social Subscribe to the podcast, Rate
the podcast, Review the podcast. Join the Army at normal
Folks dot us and join the ten Level Challenge and
get a T shirt at ten Level Challenge dot org.
(01:00:17):
Do this stuff, any and all of these things that
will help us grow an army and normal folks because
the more of you working, the more impact we're going
to have. So get involved. I'm Bill Courtney. Until next time,
do what you can
Hey, everybody, it's Bill Courtney with an army of normal folks.
And we continue now with part two of our conversation
with Ruth Thompson, right after these brief messages from our
generous sponsors. Okay, now you're open, that's right. So I
(00:32):
read that once you open, you started to notice changes
in the people who worked there. Tell us about that.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yeah, miss Temka, I'm going to go back to Miss Temkaz.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Was she one of the first.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
She was one of the first. Absolutely, I'll give you
a little little background of what our business model started
off as and how it changed. Okay, our business model
was going to be that we will hire them, employ
them for a year to give them great experience, and
(01:06):
then we would help them get a job somewhere else.
I cannot tell you the number of staff who sat
across from me after a year with tears in their
eyes and said, you're not going to make me leave,
are you? Our business model changed, and Miss Tamika is
(01:27):
one of them. Again. She was so so, so quiet,
but she got in that kitchen and she took charge.
A fun story that I love telling about her. She
(01:48):
just wouldn't engage, and she still won't engage, just start
a conversation. She does her work and that's what she
is supposed to do, and she loves her work. If
I get in.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Socialization is an issue for autistic folks.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
It is it is. If I get in the kitchen,
she's really funny. She'll roll her eyes at me. She
knows I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing anymore.
I don't go in the kitchen anymore. But there was
a fun story about her. Is everybody had my phone
(02:28):
number and our restaurant manager at the time his name
was Maria, and I got a phone call one day
from Tamika. This is a woman who would not engage
in conversation. Hi, miss Ruth, this is Ta Meka. I
(02:49):
just want to let you know that I left my
paste up on the table that's near the front door.
Would you please take care of that for me. I
know that your listeners may think that's well, okay, that's
a conversation, not a conversation she would have. And I'm going,
(03:13):
oh my gosh, somebody else has got to hear this.
And I told her, I said, I'm not at the cafe.
You'll need to call Maria and let her know and
I'm so excited that this woman is now taking charge
(03:33):
of her life and calling to let her know, let
somebody know that something was left there. That is, this
is huge for someone on the spectrum. And as soon
as she hung up, I quickly doll Maria and I said,
you're going to get a phone call and you're not
going to believe who it is or what it's going
to be said, but just listen. And she immediately after
(03:57):
she talked to me because she called, and we're both
on the phone because this woman has taken charge of
her life.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
I read. Confidence doesn't come from someone telling you you're amazing.
It comes from doing something hard over and over again
and realizing you can do it. That kind of speaks
to exactly what's been What started going on there is that,
like you said, you didn't treat these folks like mascots, right,
(04:28):
You trained them, you held them accountable, You trained them
for excellence, and you had them repeat over and over
again until they mastered something. And so their confidence as
a result of being managed, treated and cared for that way,
manifested itself in self confidence that they probably have never
(04:52):
had never It's such a broad term. Folks with intellectual disabilities.
I don't I don't even know how to say this right,
But there are levels of folks with disabilities. So what
disabilities are we talking about? And what levels of disability
(05:15):
because there's a broad range of folks that are really
quote high functioning but can't function completely alone, down to
folks like the twelve year old you saw in the stroller.
Kind of what's the spectrum of folks that work for you?
(05:35):
And what do those disabilities look like?
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Sure, and that's why it's called a spectrum because it
is very broad, and we don't look at what they
can't do. We look at what they can do. The
biggest concern that we have to look at when we're
hiring someone new is behaviors, which sometimes does go along
(06:03):
with someone maybe on the autism spectrum. And what we
do is we do get references from previous teachers or
therapists or things like that. We do have some who,
rather than saying lower functioning, we say needs more support.
(06:25):
We do have some that, and my husband calls some
of them legacy employees because they were part of my
class and I couldn't say no when we started hiring everyone.
We have one young man who works only on Saturdays,
(06:48):
but he and he's been with us for ten years.
He repeats the same mantra every Saturday. I had fun
at my house last night. I'm going to watch a
movie tonight. I'm going to go to the movies with
my sister. This is my first time working this day.
(07:12):
And so that's his mantra all day long. He does
have to we do have community volunteers, and he has
to have a community volunteer with him at all times.
But he busses tables and he knows what he's supposed
to do. He just needs more support.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
So from there all the way up to pretty high
functioning folks like Tamika.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Tamika Danny who can go out and speak like nobody's business.
We had him speak. We just opened in Dallas, but
we were introducing Hugs to Dallas people last year and
(07:57):
we had a luncheon in Dallas and we took Danny
with us. I spoke, my husband, Chris spoke, our CEO spoke,
and Danny spoke. And Danny started off with and he
has this monotone voice. Okay, So I'm going to try
to do Danny, but he says, okay, folks, I don't
(08:17):
know what kind of audience I have, so I'm gonna
start off with a joke and then I'll decide what
I can say for the rest of the time.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
I don't remember that it was hilarious exactly.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I don't remember his joke, but everyone laughed and he said, Okay,
I got a pretty good audio. He is hilarious. He
is hilarious. And he will start telling his story. And
while Danny has been working for us, his mother passed away,
(08:54):
and he talks about that and how much it means
to him to have a job, and how much it
means to him to be an ambassador. He will tell
everyone that he's the number one ambassador. We don't have
a number one.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
But if Danny wants to do, yes, Danny, he's number one.
He's number one. That's funny. Yes, here's a thought. I
grew my business from nothing, literally started in two thousand
and one with seventeen thousand dollars winging in a prayer
and dare I say also a dream. Something I learned
(09:34):
pretty quickly is success brings its own issues. You think
you got issues when you start, then you have success,
and then there's more issues. One of the issues I
read that you had with your success is that you
had more applicants than you had spaces. Tell us about that.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
We did. We hired everyone and then we started getting
more applicat and more applicants. The special needs world is
very close knit, and we were getting applications from people
down in Dallas. We're forty five minutes from Dallas. But
(10:16):
people who wanted their loved ones to have a job,
or loved ones who wanted to have a people with autism,
people with down syndrome who wanted to have a job.
We had a stack a mile long of applicants. That's
(10:39):
when we said, we've got to do more. What can
we do? So in twenty eighteen we started Hugs Greenhouse.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
I know, it's so funny.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
So I visited an organization down in near Katie, Texas,
which is near Houston, and it's called Brookwood. It started
out as a it starated as a little day program,
but now it's a huge residential I think they've got
(11:13):
like seventy acres. It's been in existence for fifty years
and they have day programs where anyone with a disability,
regardless of what the disability is, they do pottery and
they have a horticulture program and they make things by hand,
(11:39):
so it's kind of like a workshop. But because they're
not with the public, we are public facing, which makes
us not a workshop. But had god dad and visited
them and saw that they had this incredible horticulture program,
Well why can't we do that? And so I, okay,
(12:04):
I decided, let's I don't know how to grow things.
I did grow up on a farm in Georgia, but
I have killed plants more than not. My poor daddy
would just roll over in his grave the way I
(12:24):
kill plants. But somebody out there has to know how
to do this. I put a Facebook post out that
this is what I want to do. I want to
start a horticulture program with hugs. I don't know how
to do it, but I'm going to have a meeting.
I'm going to have a meeting on this night, at
(12:45):
this time at the cafe, and I hope that somebody
somewhere wants to help us with this and will join me.
I had three people who provide flowers to the Dallas
Arboretum show. I had another gentleman who had a was
(13:06):
fourth generation flower grower. He was there and then our
handyman showed up and I'm asking them what do I need?
And they're telling me, Okay, first of all, you need land.
It needs to be zoned agriculture. It needs to be
outside of the city limits. It needs to be here,
(13:28):
and you need to do this. Okay, well, where are
we going to find that? Give me some ideas. Our
handyman said, our house is on thirty two acres in
the country, zoned agriculture. We're in no one's etj We
want you to put it there zero dollars a year.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Unreal. Yes, so hugs greenhouse or I think that's what it's.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Called, Hugs greenhouse. And then okay, well, I don't know
how to grow flowers.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Well, the point is some of these applicants you couldn't
put to work in the in the restaurant exactly greenhouse.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Right, they got it.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
They need a job, which led to.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Well, let me finish telling you about the greenhouse. I'm sorry,
but yeah, I'm going Okay. At a restaurant, you've got
to have someone there at all times with a manager certification.
Do you need something like that? In a greenhouse? You do?
You need someone who is insecticide and pesticide certified. Okay,
(14:37):
where are we going to get this person? In Texas?
A and M. And they were going to, Okay, yeah,
maybe you need somebody a new graduate from A and M.
Bill Crump, who was fourth generation nursery grower or flower grower,
had retired sold all of his and he said, Ruth,
I'm tired of being retired. I want to run it
(14:57):
for you. Unbelievable, said thank you God.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Yeah, so the greenhouse started on Freeland and a free
operator who had all the stuff you needed.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
We do pay Bill a salary.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Probably, I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Right.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Unbelievable, unbelievable, And that led to I don't know that
the Hugs Home Cooking is that?
Speaker 2 (15:26):
What was? That's when we started Hugs Home Cooking because
there were other you know, we've got this list of
people who want a job. We don't have any other
opportunities for employment. We don't want to get into the
day program situation. But what we can do is offer
(15:50):
a class every now and again. So we had other
We have others that come in now once a month
and take a cooking class from a classic trained chef.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Wow, I know, I know it's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
They love it. I mean they learn how to do
chicken cord on blue and they love it.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
We'll be right back. Okay. So here you go. You've
(16:39):
got your cafe, you've got the greenhouse, you've got the
home cooking thing. Your dream is turning into reality. Yeah, certainly,
now it's time to kind of chill. No. No, So
I don't know what's next, but I think the training
(17:01):
Academy's next. Is that? What's next?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
The first training Academy.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
The first training Okay, take us through that and why
and what it means and all that. Okay, I and
we're talking last year.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Actually the training Academy. That's twenty twenty two. We started
the first training Academy.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
And why did we do that? Because we had this
long list of applicants and we can't just keep saying.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
No, I was, actually you could, no.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
I was. I joined the board. I was asked to
join the board of Directors of the Greater Dallas, Texas
Restaurant Association. And I keep hearing the number one challenge
from other restaurants is staffing. I said, guys can train them.
(18:01):
I can train my people. All you have to do
is treat them with kindness and respect. Not Hell's kitchen,
but kindness and respect and you've got an employee for life.
And I said them before, I hope, and.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
I got to ask something. Yeah, pragmatically, I'm running a
restaurant with fire and gas and hot grease and knives
and slippery floors and hot steam and a public that
all of that screams liability to me. And then I'm yeah,
(18:44):
I need staff and I need well trained staff. But
did any of them. Did you get any pushback on
can quote they end quote really handle this kind of
work and some fear. I mean, I can see pragmatically
that you might get pushed back from that.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Initially I still do. Yes, I got pushback. I still do.
But we do have our job placement people who love
what we do. I will name some. Jason Stali loves
what we do and hire our people. There's a convention center,
Irving Convention Center. They hire our people. We have found
(19:28):
that schools, school cafeterias hire our people.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Well that's interesting. So you're part of this thing, yes,
this greater You're on the board of Greater something rustaurant
associate sorryiation, Ye got it. They say they need help,
and you say, well, all these people that I can't hire.
Let me start a training academy. I'll train them and
then find them jobs elsewhere in the same thing. So
(19:54):
how to go?
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Didn't have one person that said I want to be
your first first. Yeah, it is still a struggle. And
I've been on that board for three years now. Uh,
it's still a struggle. I'm also on the Texas Restaurant
Association board. It's still a struggle. But I'm not giving up.
(20:19):
I'm not going to give up.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
But it's happening.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
It is happening. Yes, there are restaurants who are hiring
them and and but they're not just rolling silverware. Now
we hire, we we train them within the training academy.
They leave there with their food handler certification certificate. They
(20:43):
leave there knowing having been trained by the local fire
department how to put out a fire. I didn't know
how to do that until we started Hug's Training Academy
and they learn not safety.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
How many people in this Hugs Training Academy?
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Yeah right, Neil, our one m McKinney can only handle
six students per semester. We're building a building. Then that's good.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Yeah, But that's the funny thing is the one in McKinney. So, yeah,
that's the twenty twenty five thing.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
I guess twenty twenty okay, twenty twenty two we started
the one m m kinny. Twenty twenty three. I think
twenty twenty five is when we started building a building.
We started Hugs Training Academy in Dallas in twenty twenty three.
(21:41):
I believe it is.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
What are you building?
Speaker 2 (21:44):
We're building a world headquarters.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
That's hilarious. What is a world headquarters for? Where you
need a world headquarters for a cafe?
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Oh? My God, will tell Okay, so we have Okay,
now we've got Hugs Training Academy and McKinney six students
Hugs Training Academy in Dallas.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
How many students we can have up.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
To eight there?
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
When we open Hugs Training Academy in our new building,
we will be able to train up to thirty two
students per semester in this building. We will move our
restaurant into the building that we will own outright, we're
(22:34):
now paying rent. We will own it.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
So the cafe will be there, still in McKinnie.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Still in McKinney. Cafe will be there. Training Academy will
be there in a different. We'll have a training kitchen
and we can do twelve in the kitchen. We can
do three classrooms with twelve in each one, and they'll
move back and forth between the class rooms. And we'll
(23:01):
have our corporate offices in this building. It's a thirteen
thousand square foot building.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Good grief, Yeah, and a restaurant and it'll have a
rest sounds expensive.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Ten million dollars.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Where's the ten million dollars coming from?
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Oh, it's coming from individuals, corporations, grants, foundations.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
That's a hell of a long way from eight grand
from a bank sale.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Isn't it though? But we have we right now have
six hundred and fifty thousand left to rays of that
ten million, and we'll have it. We've got to have
it by March first. And we opened a cafe.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
How many people do you? How many people with disabilities
are now being served by this dream?
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Yeah? We have a total of one hundred and seven employees.
Ninety one of them are mission based employees on seventy
percent more than yeah, one hundred and seven ninety one,
ninety ninety, Yes, our mission based employees. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
How busy is it? So? When I was reading about you,
I got online, okay, and I just googled Hugs Cafe McKinney.
So I don't even know what your website is, which
you'll tell us later. It's WWW's dots something, but I
just googled it. I came right up. I hit website,
and the first thing I went to, because I'm a
(24:37):
fat this is the menu. Yes, yeah, the sandwiches look great.
I mean the food looks really really good. I actually
wondered what the soup of the day was. I said,
soup of the day, and I'm like, going to what
soup of the day is today? And I was opening
it with something like corn shower to taste soup because
I love those, okay, or maybe gumbo and know it
(25:00):
had It looks like you're open for breakfast and late
lunch up until like three, so it's a it's a
it's a it's a diner. It's a breakfast lunch type place.
The food looked fantastic. You had pictures of your employees
up there. I assume some employees. I think they were
all employees. I assume some had disabilities and some did not.
(25:23):
I don't know. There was a video of a dude
very meticulously chopping an onion. Which kind of went to
my head was you know, so many people would not
even let this guy near a knife, thinking he cut
his fingers off. But your idea is no, let's teach
him how to do this, let's raise the expectations. And
(25:46):
so as I'm looking at at this whole.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Thing, no one thing, what's that, Haiti Beth peach gobbler.
Oh you just looked at us.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
So Alex looked at turkey, bacon, shddarch and housemade peachicutney.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
I know good. So so as I'm looking at all this,
what came to my mind was my roots. I'm a
business owner. Profits are a necessary measure of any organization's success,
and I'm just a dying to know how many people
(26:22):
eat here daily? Is it profitable as a standalone business?
How do you drive traffic? I'd love to know the
business side of just the cafe, not the rest of
the stuff, but just the cafe.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Sure we are a five oh one C three organization, right,
we do need donations to keep us sustainable. That being said,
I can guarantee you twenty twenty six we will be
sustainable without being a nonprofit.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Don't make a profit as long as you put that
profit back into the non profit. Yes, so you can
make money.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Yes, we have not made money in the sense of
making a profit to the rush, just the restaurant. That
being said, with all of our other entities mentoring other
organizations across the country, we have affiliates and we're talk
(27:23):
about that that adds to our revenue. But the cafe
we know will be sustainable this year on its own,
on its own.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
You hear cafes. They have one in Dallas too. Yeah,
we're getting there.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
So so in twenty twenty six, the cafe itself will
pay its employees, handle its operational cost, and turn a profit.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Yes, it's a win win. You're helping people who otherwise
would have almost nothing to do in their lives, and
under the guise of raising the bar, these folks are
actually going to be not only doing jobs, but running
a profitable business. Yes, that's astounding. That's pretty incredible because
(28:17):
I've talked to a lot of people who've done a
lot of things, and they do things to raise revenue,
but it's very rare that those things actually can stand
on their own right, and so.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Many restaurants in order to raise revenue they'll cut employees.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Doing that. That's your whole.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
That's why we're there.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
You're right, we'll be right back. Okay. So cafe Originally
(29:04):
cafe was singular now cafes as or so where else?
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Okay, We just opened in December of twenty twenty five
Hugs Cafe in Dallas.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
How many people work there?
Speaker 2 (29:17):
So excited. There's twenty three that work there.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Where where it is?
Speaker 2 (29:23):
In? Yes, there is an organization called the Meadows Foundation
and they're very very sortive supportive of lots of nonprofits
in the Dallas area. In fact, they have this huge campus.
I don't know how large it is, but they have
offices and buildings. They're old homes that have been restored
(29:45):
on their campus and that's the office for these different nonprofits.
One is Treasured Vessels, which helps women who have been trafficked.
There all sorts of things. They he came to us.
They have given us several grants. They came to us
(30:05):
and said, we have a building, an empty building on
our campus. We would love to have a Hugs Cafe there.
We need this in Dallas, and we're paying nothing for
rent for ten years and we open up and get going.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
And now people on the campus have a place to
go to lunch.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Absolutely, it's gorgeous. And I know you know about Cafe Momentum.
They're going to be building right across the street from us.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Yeah, it's interesting. It's interesting that Chad and Cafe Momentum.
For those of you listening who haven't watched that episode,
just go back to Chadouser Cafe Momentum, who also has
a restaurant, and he is a classically trained chef, he is,
and his place is staff by.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
Justice Involved Youth.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Yeah, juvenile offenders.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Juvenile offenders who have found their way out of difficult
circumstances through a love of the culinary work. And Chad's
restaurant is amazing too. And now he's going to be
operating near you, Yes, on the same campus.
Speaker 4 (31:21):
Actually cool updaking. We've not updated listeners on it. He's
now in Atlanta. Yeah, he's all over the place.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
He is, and it's so sweet. He was he was
at our grand opening at the Dallas location and gave
me a big hug. I said, you know, we just
have different populations. We do the same thing, just different populations.
And he said, Ruth, you wouldn't believe how similar our
populations are.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Oh that's interesting, yes, because of Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
You know, it's interesting to get in trouble. Maybe there's
a reason some of them get in trouble, but they've
never been diagnosed.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
So now we're Huggs McKinnie, Hugs, Dollas, Hugs, Greenhouse, Hugs
training facility, and hugs like home cooking. I say that right, yes,
And then you said something about and now Hugs World
where the Huggs mckinniy will be located. But you also
(32:21):
said something about affiliates. Yeah, it almost sounds like Chick
fil A's franchising over here. What what tell me what
is an affiliate? And tell me what they are and
where they are and what's developed there, because that's incredible.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Yeah. I can't tell you the number of people that
have found out about us across the country that have
called me over the years. Can I visit with you? Can?
Can you tell me how to do this? How did
you do it? And I would spend hours on the phone.
People would would come and visit. I'd let them, you know,
(32:58):
stay in we're in the cafe. And we decided, you know,
we can help more people. We can't be everywhere. We
would love to be everywhere. We can't be everywhere, but
we can help others. I mean, it was getting questions
from how do you put together a board of directors?
(33:19):
How do you file for a five oh one c?
Speaker 3 (33:21):
Three?
Speaker 2 (33:23):
How do you decide what you're going to sell or produce?
Every single question that there is. So what we're doing
now is we're licensing our We wrote our own curriculum.
We're licensing our curriculum. We're also licensing how we did everything.
(33:43):
And this is another revenue stream for us. We have
affiliates now, we have lily Pad in Ridgeland, Mississippi. We have.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Yes and I know jacksonsis there.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Yes, Yeah, Gosh, I can't remember the names of all
of them. There's one in Arkansas. They have not opened yet.
I think they're in Fayetteville. Uh, they haven't opened yet.
They wanted a Hugs there. But now it's a husband and.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
Wife Pathway cafe that's in Springdale.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
That may northwest Arkansas.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Some neat couple. Then we've got Illinois.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
For people just listening. Bill is now going in for a.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Second the rest of it. While you're while you're shut up,
go ahead, you keep not you shut up A shut.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Up, I'll talk since you have cooking out. Uh, we
have Kischette k E s h E T in Chicago.
They have been around. They're an organization that's been around
for years and years and years. They have a kitchen
but they never used it or a restaurant kind of space.
(35:03):
And they came to us and said, how do we
do this? So we're mentoring them. We have a gentleman
in Colorado who uses that F word franchise, and we're
we're still trying to figure out. You know, how do
(35:25):
you govern I mean, Chad not going to have a
long talk about this, but how do you govern a
nonprofit that's in another state? And I mean this gentleman
came to us and he said, I've got the money,
I don't want to run it. Well, okay, so we're
working on that.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
You're supposed to be retired ten years space. Yeah, I know,
it's incredible.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
Looks like Tallahassee.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Oh yes, yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
And then what's the Super Duper Cookie in Dallas?
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Okay, super Duper Cookie Company. It's right off of the
s m U University SMU campus and that is a
gentleman who wanted to do make these cookies and higher
our population. But he didn't know how to work with them.
(36:19):
They're an incredible family. They opened this super duper cookie
company and ran it for a few months, and now
they've come to us and said, you know, can you
run this forest? And so.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
With them, Wait one more.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
My Possibilities has been on the podcast. Charmaine was here.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
Oh, Charmaine was here. Wonderful. They had this beautiful campus.
I've known Charmain forever and a day. In fact, she
My Possibilities before they had their big, beautiful building used
to bring students to take cookiing classes from me.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
That makes sense. Yes, everybody needs to go to that
episode too, if you want some perspective on that. It's
crazy how some of these things are intersecting. I didn't
really know that before Magie.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Why not work together? A lot of nonprofits just look
at other nonprofits as.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Competition, especially for funding.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Yes, but why not work together, especially when it comes
to grants, because you're asked who do you collaborate with? Well,
My Possibilities has this beautiful kitchen and they were doing
nothing with it. They came to us and said, you know, culinary,
(37:43):
we don't We don't even know how to hire for culinary.
We're now running there. It's called Hugs Cafe at My Possibilities.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
That's unbelievable, I know.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
And we're training there are people the.
Speaker 3 (37:58):
College campus for people who haven't heard.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Yes, so yeah, the curriculum that my possibilities is insane.
They've got ye under closer classes. I remember going down
the curriculum actually on the podcast and just reading some
of them, and I was flabbergasted at what.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
My hospitality fabulous program.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
So the culinary thing is now Hugs at My Possibilities. Yeah,
why wouldn't it be so? Over the next five years,
your plans are to serve more than six hundred and
fifty individuals, established twenty five nonprofit mentorships, create ten curriculum
licensing partnership, and open three new Hugs Cafes where I
(38:40):
can tell you you're not going to tell.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Me I wanna well, actually I do think well death.
We'll be in Colorado, probably Colorado Springs, phenomenal. We will
probably be somewhere in north west Florida. Got it, And
we're working on another one that's phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
I know. Do you pinch yourself a little?
Speaker 2 (39:06):
I do? I do? I will tell you I'm saying.
I don't mind saying it to the world. I'm seventy
one years old. No, I'm seventy two. Crap. I was
a little more energetic when I was younger. We have
(39:29):
a CEO. Her name is Laurence Smith, and I can't
say enough about her.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Do you feel like you're letting your baby go?
Speaker 2 (39:38):
No, I feel like I'm now able to walk side
by side with her. And because she has the energy,
she has the quick thinking, she has all that we need.
I told her one day, you remind me so much
(39:59):
of myself when I was in my late thirties.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
You know, I've been sitting across from me for an
hour and forty three minutes so far, and it's not
like you ain't spra You're doing all right. I hope
it's seventy two. I'm rocket like you are because you're yeah,
a big smile and you are quick thinking in all
of that. But I get it. You have to plan
(40:23):
for success.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
You do have to plan for secession. And she's got it,
and she leads this organization. She's she has been the one.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
So five years from now, yeah, maybe you actually do
take your overdue retirement. That you were supposed to take
a decade ago. Maybe not, maybe you've at least just
worked four hours a day. But at whatever point you
are sitting in your recliner in your great room with Chris,
(41:01):
five years from now, what will success look like to
you for this enterprise that was a dream only ten
years ago? What do you what do you want from it?
What is your what is your dream now? For it?
Speaker 2 (41:15):
I want to be making a change in lives across
this country. Well, actually I'm already I've already reached across
the world. I helped a young man in Kazakhstan.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
I'm kidding, no.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
His name is Malin m may U l I N
And I just reached out to him again. I haven't
heard from him for a while, but he now has
three and I forget what they're called. But he started.
He heard about us through Upworthy did a story on us.
(41:53):
He heard about us, and this is like the year
after We're open, and he wanted to do something in
his university campus, same thing. And we spent hours upon
hours on the phone, probably in the middle of the night,
(42:14):
because it's a different type.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
The other's are the work literally eleven hours away.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
Yeah, and he started something on his university campus. One
thing he did is he called me one time and
we were talking. He said, do you pay them? And
I said.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
Absolutely jobs, Yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
We pay them, and we're very proud of the fact
that we don't just pay them minimum wage. We pay
them higher because many states you can pay them some
minimum wage.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
Most states you can pay people disability. And I get
the intention there is to have something for them to
do and to be employed. But if you take a
page from your book, you would argue that you're patronizing
them and you're only asking them to roll silverware. You
(43:14):
would say, from what I've met you now, is that
pay them above them wage and expect more from them
and watch them grow.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
Yes. Yes, So I told him, I said, will you
not pay them? And his reply was, you have to
understand in our country, a person with a disability has
fewer rights than a criminal. They have the right to work,
they do not have the right to get paid to work,
(43:44):
which is anyway. I also, yeah, I also helped a
young woman in Egypt open something, no kidding, And there
was someone in Ireland that I have helped years five years.
There should be somewhere in every state in these United States.
(44:07):
That's employing people with disabilities and giving them meaningful employment,
not rolling silverware. And I'll rest easy and learn to knit.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
I get that you what you did in Colorado, and
I get the grocery store experience that kind of led
to all of this. But is there something in your
you mentioned earlier, you didn't have anybody in your family
that has intellectual disabilities. Where does the sense of service
(44:44):
come from for you?
Speaker 2 (44:48):
You know, that's interesting. My mother was a nurse. I
think I told you. I grew up on a farm
in south central Georgia. She was a nurse, daddy was
a farmer, and she was all always giving back. But
it was a small town and everyone was always helping
each other. I think I just have that instinct. I
(45:14):
just think it's there that that's what we're supposed to
be here to do, is help others. That's where my
passion is.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
We'll be right back. You've always been clear that the
work did not begin with expertise. You didn't know anything
(45:53):
about it, which we talked about earlier. But you you
don't have a background in restaurants. You didn't have really
a plan. But there's a quote here that Alex provided
that I love and I want you to talk about it.
People assume someone else is going to do it. Something
(46:13):
we say all the time is you know when you
see all the abject despair and loss and you think, boy,
somebody ought to do something about that. One day we
ask who that was, somebody what's wrong with you? And
you say, people assume someone else is going to do it.
When everyone assumes someone else will handle it, nothing gets handled.
(46:34):
You don't have to open a cafe, you don't have
to start a nonprofit. You can look at what's in
front of you. You can decide not to ignore it.
People wait until they feel ready. Responsibility doesn't wait for permission.
Are you willing to step in even if you don't
know how this ends? When we stop expecting people to contribute,
(46:56):
we shouldn't be surprised when communities are fractured. If you
expect nothing, you'll get nothing. When you expect someone to
show up to contribute to matters, something changes.
Speaker 2 (47:09):
That is.
Speaker 1 (47:12):
Dead right in my opinion. And you and I sing
off the same sheet of music. The way we sing
the song may sound a little different, but it's the
same thing. To me. It sounds like you feel a
responsibility because you see a need, Can you just kind
of speak to that at the end of our conversation
(47:34):
here so that our listeners maybe can grab some of
your passion and your conviction and now, after ten years,
some of your wisdom.
Speaker 2 (47:46):
It took me years to find what my passion was,
and I was for many, many, many years, I was
always saying, God, what am I here for? I've got
my wonderful family, beautiful children, wonderful husband, Why am I here?
(48:09):
And just being around people with disabilities. The last job
I had in Colorado, it was I knew that was
it and somebody had to do something. And then when
(48:29):
we moved to Texas and there were so few opportunities.
There are many ways that people can help others, and
you know, there's the homeless, there are food, insecurities, and
(48:50):
so many people are seen that, which is wonderful. But
sometimes you've got to step out of that box and
see what other needs there are. And when I saw
this need and God said, You've got to do it,
(49:14):
nobody else is going to do it unless that one
person does, and I just knew and felt that in
my gut, in my heart, one person.
Speaker 1 (49:30):
I am. It's impossible not to hear your story and
admire it.
Speaker 2 (49:35):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (49:36):
It's impossible not to meet you and admire you and
be taken with the fact that you're seventy two. You
carry seventy two extraordinarily well, thank you. I don't know
who wrote this, maybe it was Alex, but it is
so true that admiration can be a way of opting out.
(49:57):
In other words, many people have told me that, you know,
the work I've done in Inner City with football and
whatever is inspiring and blah blah blah blah blah, as
if those words, as if admiration or accepting inspiration is enough,
(50:19):
and by just saying something nice, they opt out of
the work. And that may sound a little tough to
some people, but I do feel that way. When I
read that, I thought, that's interesting. Who wrote that? Do
you write that?
Speaker 3 (50:31):
Honest answer, CHATCHVT did, CHATCHVT did.
Speaker 1 (50:36):
Chat GPT wrote that? And I mean.
Speaker 3 (50:41):
Another extension of your line too. We feel like it
erases our own responsibility.
Speaker 1 (50:46):
That's what I mean, yeah, is And so while I
appreciate the kind of comments and stuff, it is tempting
to hear a story like yours and admire and maybe
write you one hundred dollars check and assume that that
means you're part of the process of doing something good
(51:09):
because you say, wow, that's nice. Yeah, but nothing replaces action,
and this whole show, if anything, is a call to
action to normal people by highlighting stories like yours and
hopefully inspiring people to not just be inspired, but to act,
(51:30):
to not think because they listen to this show that
it allows them to opt out of the actual work. Yeah,
do you have a call to action for those that
are hearing you today? How would you inspire people to
get off the sidelines?
Speaker 2 (51:46):
Just get off your button? Do it? And I make
it sound so easy. No, it wasn't easy. Where have
there been times over these years that you would find
me in the corner in a few position. Absolutely, But
you know you've just even especially those of faith, trust,
(52:13):
trust and get up and do it.
Speaker 1 (52:18):
You've told me you felt people all over the world,
and you keep doing stuff and you've got the new young,
younger version of you come along that you're meentoring and training.
I know there's website because I looked at it, But
what's it.
Speaker 2 (52:31):
Called huggscafe dot org org.
Speaker 1 (52:36):
H ugscafe dot org.
Speaker 2 (52:38):
Yes, and hugs is hope, understanding grace and success.
Speaker 1 (52:43):
Hope understanding grace and success cool acronym.
Speaker 3 (52:47):
Do people give hugs tough?
Speaker 2 (52:49):
We have mission based staff that chase you down the
street if you walk out the door without a hug.
Speaker 1 (52:57):
Oh my gosh. If somebody let's get in touch with
you and wants to be one of these new locations
or work with you, or support you or hear more,
how did they get in touch with you?
Speaker 2 (53:09):
Your website which is hugscafe dot org.
Speaker 1 (53:13):
Can they find you there?
Speaker 2 (53:15):
There is a info and info at hugscafe dot org. Actually,
if they want to send an email that goes to
someone and if they want to talk to me, they
will let me know.
Speaker 1 (53:28):
Ruth Thompson everybody the founder of Hugs Cafe McKinney, Texas,
who clearly is willing to talk to folks and help
him out. So that's how you get to them. Ruth,
close us out with You've told us about who's the speaker, Danny.
He told me. It told us about Daniel, and you've
told us about in the kitchen Tamika. Yes, give us
(53:53):
one of the stories that when you're laying in bed
and your head's pounding you've had enough still makes you smile.
Speaker 2 (54:00):
I've got a great one. Her name is Kathy. Kathy
has cerebral palsy. Kathy started with us, and what could
Kathy do? Kathy has the constricted muscles in her hands,
a little problem with her gait. At the time that
she started with us, all of our sandwiches are toasted.
(54:24):
She would man the toaster, and her job some of
our jobs, we we carved the jobs to meet a
person's abilities. Rather than expecting Kathy to make the scent,
toast the bread, make the sandwich, put the sides on
(54:46):
to me, I can do that. Kathy's job was to
toast the bread. She coined herself the bread queen. And
when we first started training, I got it stool for
Kathy to sit on. And Kathy looked at me and
she said, nobody else in here has a stool. I'm
(55:10):
not going to have a stool. And she worked. She
no longer works for us. She's now moving to Tennessee.
I believe to be near her her brother. But she said,
nobody else has a stool. I'm like everybody else. I'm
gonna do my job standing here. Kathy and Tamika and
(55:36):
Danny make me smile and cry at the same time.
Speaker 1 (55:43):
That's phenomenal. You know, There's one other thing I want
to say that I'm gonna I'm gonna ask you to
speak to a little bit, is people with intellectual disabilities
are a blessing and a joy done. My brother in
(56:04):
law has taught me that. Yeah, it's also taught me
there are a lot.
Speaker 2 (56:07):
Of work.
Speaker 1 (56:09):
I have to believe that. Not only is this therapeutic
and amazing for the confidence and abilities of people with
disabilities that can find a purpose and work for you
and make an income and be proud and learn and
all of that, but oh my gosh, it must be
heaven sent for their families.
Speaker 2 (56:29):
Have you.
Speaker 1 (56:31):
Gotten that? Have you had those type of conversation with
family members?
Speaker 2 (56:35):
Most definitely tell me.
Speaker 1 (56:37):
What that looks like.
Speaker 2 (56:38):
We have a mother who came to me three years
in her son had been working for us and sobbing,
absolutely sobbing, and she said, Ruth, I never thought there
was ever going to be anything for him. Is Marcus?
(57:01):
I always wondered what's gonna happen to Marcus? And she said,
now maybe we can think about getting Marcus an apartment.
She said, there's he has a purpose. He gets up
(57:23):
his dad makes his lunch the night before to take
to work. Marcus with his dad, makes his lunch at
night to take to work. He has a purpose.
Speaker 1 (57:37):
Not only does Marcus has hope, his parents do exactly.
Speaker 2 (57:41):
We have Jerry, who is this big teddy bear with
down syndrome. And Jerry you can't always understand what he says,
but his mother, he's been with us from the beginning.
His mother, Sherry said, whenever they go anywhere, Jerry will
(58:01):
tell people he has a job, and that just changes
her life.
Speaker 1 (58:10):
Ruth Thompson, everybody, founder of Hugs Cafe and Mackenzie Texas
and now World Headquarters and all of the other things
you've heard about an extraordinary woman with an extraordinary story,
doing extraordinary work and changing lives of not only the
people that she has disabilities with those in her family
and I assure you the volunteers who interact with her population. Ruth,
(58:32):
I can't tell you how much I appreciate you coming
to Memphis and sharing your story. You are an inspiration
and it's an honor to meet you.
Speaker 2 (58:42):
It's a pleasure to meet you. And now I'm teary Terry,
I thank you.
Speaker 1 (58:47):
I don't know how you could listen to this and
not tear up a little bit. Ruth, amazing story. Not
bad for seventy two. You can come back when you're
one hundred and forty four. Thank you, Thank you, Bye bye.
Speaker 3 (59:00):
Can you order the cookies online?
Speaker 2 (59:02):
Yes? You can?
Speaker 1 (59:02):
Oh, heck yeah, I guess we're not signed off yet.
How do you go to the website?
Speaker 2 (59:08):
Go to the website. You can order cookies online.
Speaker 1 (59:10):
Well, let me just tell you the wedding cake cookie
is worth order. And I'm taking my backs home to Lisa.
She's gonna equal and I know she's gonna love it
all right. Thanks for being Thank you so much, and
thank you for joining us this week. If Ruth Thompson
has inspired you in general, or better yet, take action
(59:32):
by visiting Hug's Cafe, donating to them, rallying an army
of normal folks to start something like it in your community,
or something else that is entirely different but you feel
convicted about let me know. I really want to hear
about it. You can write me anytime at Bill at
(59:52):
normal Folks dot us and I will respond. If you
enjoyed this episode as a look likes to say, share
it for and on social Subscribe to the podcast, Rate
the podcast, Review the podcast. Join the Army at normal
Folks dot us and join the ten Level Challenge and
get a T shirt at ten Level Challenge dot org.
(01:00:17):
Do this stuff, any and all of these things that
will help us grow an army and normal folks because
the more of you working, the more impact we're going
to have. So get involved. I'm Bill Courtney. Until next time,
do what you can
Host
Bill Courtney
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