February 17, 2026 • 39 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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Speaker 1 (00:03):
You've got a passion, you've got a great heart, you
have some experience with people with disabilities, but you don't
have anything else.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Really, you're absolutely right. I had no experience in running
a business, running a restaurant, running a nonprofit. You know.
We just started talking to friends at our church about it.
It's interesting the number of people who said, I want
to help you with that. We had a woman she
was the major fundraiser at a university in Kansas. She said,
(00:35):
I know how to fundraise. I want to help you
with that. We had another gentleman who was CEO of
a restaurant equipment company, and he said, oh my gosh,
I can help you with that. We're Episcopalian. We passed
the piece and instead of saying the Peace of the
Lord be with you, I said, Kim, tell me about
(00:55):
your location downtown me Kenny, And she said, I want
hugs in my building. You ask me how I did this?
God put all these people in my path.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney.
I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, I'm a father,
I'm an entrepreneur, and I'm a football coach in Inner
City Memphis, and somehow that last part led to an
oscar for the film about one of my teams. That
movie is called Undefeated. Guys, I believe our country's problems
(01:33):
are never gonna be solved by a bunch of fancy
people in nice suits using big words that nobody ever
uses on CNN and Fox, but rather by an army
of normal folks. That's us, you and me deciding hey,
I can help. That's what Ruth Thompson, the voice you
just heard, has done. Her restaurants ain't no ordinary restaurants.
(01:57):
Hugs Cafe employs adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. That's
eighty five percent of their operating staff. And Ruth's episode
will teach you how to listen to callings on your heart,
how an army of normal folks in your community can
make crazy callings like Ruth's happen, and how people with
(02:21):
disabilities can do far more than our culture empowers them to.
But Ruth and her army are going to change all that,
and I cannot wait for you to meet her. Right
after these brief messages from our general sponsors, Ruth Thompson,
(02:46):
Welcome to Memphis.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Thank you at long last, Yes after to me delays.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
That's okay, that's okay.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
She still brought you a present through all those delays.
You brought me a present.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
I did bring you a present.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Would you bring me I can?
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I brought you wedding cake cookies.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Wedding cake cookies out of town. Hold on, you bring
a fat guy something to eat. Everything stops.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
It is taped.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Open it.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
There's tape.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Look at packaging. That's coolssy.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
This is yes, there you go.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
It's highly packaged.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
So our number one dessert is wedding cake cookies. Oh
my goodness, they taped it.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Well, well it does it taste like wedding cake?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Because I'm not going to say a thing.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
So you put it in your mouth.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Do you want something? Oh yeah, I'm going to give
one to you want to buy cases? Here we go.
I'm not eating the whole one. I'm just eating this.
That is so good.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah, he's gonna eat the rest of it.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Holy all right, everybody. So I'll tell her about the
cake lady on the drive over, Ruth Thompson bringing me cakes.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
And it's because she's a founder or wedding cake cookies,
cake cookies. She's a founder of Hugs Cafe, which is
a little spot and started as a little most spot
in McKinney, Texas. That you were going to be shocked
at what it does and what it has become and
(04:29):
what it continues to become.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
I guess definitely.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
So while I eat yeah this cookie, let's jump right in.
Because Ruth, you were about to retire. I mean, you
were on the verge of retirement. You've lived a full life.
Why don't you just stay comfortable and be done well?
Speaker 2 (04:47):
I hope it's okay to say this right here, but
God's had other plans.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
It's okay to say anything you want to say right here.
And we have plenty of people who listen to us
who have faith. Some are Jewish, I am a Christian,
Some are agnostic. But I think everybody respects people's perspective.
So tell me about how you know God had a
(05:14):
different plan for you other than to retire and go fish.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Yeah. Yeah, and I love fishing, by the way, But yeah,
I was. I was getting ready to retire. And there's
a long story that leads up to it. Do you
want that story that leads up to it?
Speaker 1 (05:30):
We'll get to that. Okay, Why don't you just Tell
me why you didn't retire.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Tell me I didn't retire.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
You're sleeping one night.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, I had a dream two nights in a row,
of a restaurant that employed adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
And this was in twenty twelve. My husband and I
had planned, he had done such a great job all
our lives, planning for twenty thirteen, the year of retirement.
(06:00):
The reply to my dream was, we've got to do it.
God's hitting you at the two by four, We've got
to do it.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Briefly, what was the dream.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
It was a restaurant. And in this restaurant the majority
of the people working there were people with special needs
intellectual and developmental disabilities, down syndrome, autism, three were palsy.
And uh yeah, it's uh we we did it. We
(06:30):
had never worked in a restaurant. Well, I digress. When
my husband was seventeen, he worked in an A and W.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Fast, hardly a restaurant. Yes, yes, they got burgers and floats. Yeah,
I guess so, but yes, in your husband's.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Name, Chris, My husband's name is Chris.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Is it lost on anybody that you started a restaurant
and together your names are Ruth Chris.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
You know, that's how we get people to remember our names.
We introduce ourselves as Ruth Chris.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
No steakhouse, hilarious. All right, So the first dream you
said it was two nights in a row. Yeah, well
explain that. I mean, you dreamed it and then you
dreamed it again. And by the way, I've dreamed things,
and I didn't decide to change my entire life plans
and go do stuff.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
So this was one I dream. It must have been
heavy on your heart.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
It was, it was. And I had been teaching adults
with special needs how to cook it home, and he
would come in and volunteer. So he kind of got
the peace. Chris, my husband, Yes, Chris, and he would volunteer.
He would he got the bug. He fell in love
with a population of people that I had fallen in
(07:48):
love with. We don't have a family member with disabilities,
but we've now got about seventy, no ninety loved ones disabilities.
But you know we had to do it.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
In what capacity?
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Were you working with adults or kids or whomever with disabilities?
You just said before the dream, you'd been we volunteering
teaching people with disabilities how to cook and care for themselves.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Well, I was. There was a new grocery store that
it opened in McKinny right before I'm ken Texas McKinney, Texas,
right before I moved there called Market Street. They had
a cooking school and I was hired as the manager
of the cooking school. My primary job was to book
(08:41):
Dallas local chefs to come in and teach the home
cook how to up his or her game.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
That's kind of cool.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Yeah, it was really a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
And that brings I guess conceivably brings more people into the.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Grocery store to buy. So it's a park to bring
people in.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Absolutely as soon as they take a class, they want
to go down and shop for all of the need ingredients.
And I had a passion for adults with special needs.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Where did that come from?
Speaker 2 (09:13):
That came from Colorado. I lived in Colorado for thirty
years and the last job I had up there was
cear executive director for a company that was a for
profit company that provided care for really families that had
severe children with severe disabilities. We started a day program
(09:39):
there for adults because there's nothing for them after they
age out of school, which is the age of twenty one,
and that's across the nation. So we started a day
program for adults, and I fell in love with a
population of people that are taught me so very much.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
How do you fallm well with the population of people
that the vast majority of folks when they see people
with disabilities turn away or walk the other way, or
at worst stare or are appalled.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
You know, I just think it's my heart. I'll give
you a prime story. Just very recently, I was shopping
in a shoe store, just walking around, and there's a
woman there pushing a child around. The child was twelve
and he's in a stroller, and to me, it was
(10:36):
very obvious that he had autism. He was nonverbal, and
it was just he just had some of those obvious signs.
And I walked up and started talking to him. I mean,
that's what I do. And she's the mother started crying
and she said, most people turn away and walk down
(10:56):
another aisle to avoid us, and you didn't. And that's
just who I am.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
The reason I ask is because when I first met Lisa,
my wife of thirty five years, when I went to
pick her up the very first night at her front door,
I was greeted by a seven year old guy named Ben,
her little brother, who clearly had some form of disability.
(11:23):
He was not downs, was not his ailment, and he
wasn't autistic, But like you say, he had obvious signs
of some disability in his speech and his mannerisms and
his look. But he had a vis fall on his face,
and he introduced himself, shook my hand vigorously, and since then,
(11:45):
for thirty five years, Ben has been a part of
my life. He's my children's uncle, he's my wife's brother,
he's my inlawst son. But I got to tell you,
thirty five years with Ben has not been without a
lot of challenges. We certainly understand the twenty one year
(12:05):
old aging out thing and what to do next, aging
parents in the mid seventies, and how do they care
for a forty something year old, two hundred and fifty
pound guy who, when he gets frustrated, could get angry.
All of the things that I have no doubt if
you have had a heart for and worked with folks
with disabilities, you understand. So I get the bomb crying
(12:30):
as you greeted our autistic twelve year old in a
wheelchair or a stroller. What I don't get is how
you decide a retirement. You want to take this population on.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
It's hard.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
I want to agree with you and say it is.
But we still travel. That's what we wanted to do
when we retired, and we still travel. We have staff,
but we also have these people in the world that
needs somebody to advocate for them, and we have to
(13:10):
be that person.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
And now a few messages from our general sponsors. But first,
we've launched our first six local service clubs around the country.
At a time when only thirty three percent of Americans
are contributing in their community at the level that they
want to. The mission of these clubs is to make
service easier for everyone. The first sex are in Memphis, Oxford, Wichita, Atlanta,
(13:44):
Ozak County, and the Milwaukee area, and North Dutchess County,
which is New York. If you live in one of
these areas, visit the service club section of our site
normal folks dot us and get plugged in like other
Army members that are launching clubs in their communities later
this year, including San Antonio, Lincoln, Nebraska, Huntsville, Alabama, Lincoln County, Ohio,
(14:10):
Lorraine County, Ohio. If you happen to live in one
of these following areas and are interested, email Alex at
Army at normal Folks dot us and he'll get you
connected to them. We'll be right back. You know, you
(14:35):
said you had two dreams. Some would call that a calling.
Do you call it a calling?
Speaker 2 (14:45):
I do? This is our ministry, This is our ministry.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Well, how do you know it's not just a dream?
How do you know it is a calling? And you're
about to retire. You've worked your whole life, Your husband
Chris has, as you said, planned for retirement, and you've
had this dream. Certainly you're passionate about people's disabilities because
(15:13):
of what you've just told us. But for those listening,
we've all had thoughts about things we would like to
do or we think would be good for society, and
then we go on about our daily lives. What about
this was so poignant to you? That this was more
than a dream and it was a calling? And what
(15:36):
does it say about your belief that you had a
responsibility to answer that calling and that at your age,
that calling didn't have an expiration date.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Yeah, a dream, two nights in a row, the same one.
Everything about it I don't believe I have ever had,
and a dream that was so real, I don't think
I have ever had. I did go and talk to
my priest about it, and he said, yes, this is
(16:14):
God talking to you. And he said, but usually God
needs a two by four for me to listen. And
he said, well, maybe to the same dream two nights
in a row as your two by four. We just knew,
we just knew we had to do this and make
a difference in someone else's life.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
It feels like it rides on the coketails of the
introduction that you probably never saw coming was the culinary
program that you talk about, right.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Right, So how'd that start?
Speaker 1 (16:50):
I mean, what I just heard was housewives coming into
buy groceries. I did not hear a culinary program at
a grocery store for people disability.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
So how did it? Moorph?
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Yeah, when I was interviewed for the manager's position. First
of all, when I got to Texas, I wanted to
continue that line of work with adults with disabilities and
could not find anything. There were no opportunities truly at
that time, not only for someone looking for work, but
(17:24):
for that population. It was very slim loved to cook,
had a passion for cooking and hospitality, and the cooking
school it opened. When they asked me what my passion was,
and I told them about my work with adults with
special needs, they said, make it work here. So in Texas,
(17:50):
In Texas, Yes, When I applied for the job, interviewed
for the job as manager of the cooking school m Chinney,
the person interviewing me said, what are you passionate about?
And I told them about my work with adults with
special needs, how I just had this passion for them,
and she said, make it work here. So I started
(18:12):
cooking classes and again, teaching them how to do something
as simple as scrambling eggs and making toast, all the
way up to one class, I got real ambitious and
taught them how to make pasta. Never did that one again.
It was fun. It was fun, but very messy. But
(18:35):
after and we started these classes in two thousand and five.
I retired in two retired in twenty thirteen, and when
I left there, we had over one hundred and twenty
adults with special needs who would take classes from us
in one month.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
That's phenomenal, yes, which obviously is what planted the seed
for the dreams and for what you're doing now. But
during that time I read something that I found fascinating.
You said that it was there that you developed a
hot take, which was, we often treat people disabilities like mascots.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
What in the world are you talking about.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
There? Some people look at adults with disabilities as they're fun.
They make me smile. Yeah, they laugh a lot, but
there's so much more to them, and they want to learn.
(19:41):
They want to learn, so that's what we're doing.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
I guess your your take on mascots is another way
of saying, tongue in cheek that a lot of the
way we think about people with disabilities is condescension.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Yes, yes, I like the mascot word better, but condescending.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
But that's what you're saying.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
True.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Yes, aren't they cute? Yeah, in the South, we might
say bless their heart, bless their heart.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
Or you also tell the story of silverware.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Let's give them just some several jobs if you can
tell that story, And that's so often a restaurant may say, well,
we hire somebody that has disabilities and they roll the silverware,
and it's they can do so much more than just
(20:45):
roll silverware or a grocery store. It irritates me sometimes
when someone says, oh, the local grocery store and I
won't name any names, hires those people and they bag groceries.
Try to put them in the bakery. Oh my gosh,
(21:07):
put somebody with autism in a bakery. You're going to
have some fabulous items coming out of there, and they're
going to be the same way every single time.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
We could attest to that. We just ate it.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
So with that background and that mentality, you have this dream.
But a dream is a long way from starting a restaurant, yes,
which we're going to get to. But I do want
to I do want to just drop a couple of
quotes on you before we go to the actual restaurant
(21:43):
that you said at Huggs. We don't clap for effort.
We train for excellence. We don't clap for effort.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
We train for it.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
In other words, we don't we don't pat folks on
the back for showing up. You have the same expectations
of them on the basics as you do with someone
without disabilities, and you expect them to rise to the occasion.
I want you to talk about that. And you also
said when you lower the bar, people disappear into it.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
I love that quote. Talk about bethose things.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yeah, the first one was.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
You don't clap for effort. We train for excellence.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Absolutely. We have people who have been at the cafe
for ten years. We don't have turnover, and they want
the same thing that you and I and Alex and
everyone else wants in this world, to be successful and
(22:48):
to have their own purpose and training for excellence. We
have one young woman I'm going to call out, Tamika
who is she's on the spectrum and she started she's
very very quiet, but that woman can run our kitchen
(23:11):
and we have promoted her to kitchen lead. And she
started out never having been in a kitchen, but we
trained her for excellence and this is what we've got now.
She now trains if we have a new volunteer, she
(23:31):
trains the new volunteers that come in. If we have
new staff, she trains them. And this is a woman
who just wouldn't talk.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Who was probably destined to roll silverware.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Who is destined to roll silverware. If she were in
another restaurant, that's what she would be doing.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Because your approach is we trained for excellence. We don't
just clap for trying.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
That is correct.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
When you lower the bar, people disappear into it. They do.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
We have another young man, Danny, and Danny also, Oh
my gosh, I wish I'd brought Danny with me. We
now have an ambassador program and some of our mission
based staff will go out when I go out to speak,
and they will go out and speak. Danny is one
of our ambassadors. We could have just let Danny. He
(24:26):
started out in the dishpit as a dishwasher. He could
still be there. He's been there for ten years. At
the cafe, he now runs the front of the house,
the dining room. Some people don't know what front of
the house means. He runs the dining room, he runs
(24:47):
the dishpit. He goes out and speaks about his journey
with Hugs, And we could have left him in the
doing dishes in the dishpit.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
He would have, in other words, if he lowered the
bar to that, he'd disappeared into that forever. Absolutely, we'll
be right back.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
So with that background and mentality and that background of
experience and that background of passion, which, by the way,
we say constantly around here that the beauty and magic
happens when someone's passion intersects with opportunity. Well, you clearly
had the passion, you had the calling and the dream.
(25:45):
But a restaurant that's a long way. And even classes
to teach folks with disabilities how to cook, and even
a background at the grocery store. Although all of that
clearly or steps along the way to setting you up
for this ultimate goal screwing up your retirement, You're still
(26:07):
a long way away from a restaurant, from a facility,
from a location, from having cash flow to or operation
capital to buy food to deal with, to own silverware
and plates and places to sit, and all of the
(26:27):
places all of the things you need to cook, like
stoves and ovens. And I've worked in restaurants. I put
myself through college going through restaurants. They're expensive enterprises to
start up, and your barn rate, meaning those first few
months where are doing nothing but spending money trying to
get things going, often kills enterprises before they ever get going.
(26:48):
And candidly, you've never run a restaurant or run a business,
so I don't even know if you know any of
what I'm talking about at that point in your life.
I'm certain you do now having done this. But great,
you got a passion, you've got a great heart, you
have some experience with people with disabilities. You feel like
you have a calling, you have a dream, but you
(27:09):
don't have anything else. Really, so how does how does
a dream in saying yes to them or calling and
saying yes to them? How does opening a real world
cafe with that basis?
Speaker 3 (27:25):
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Clearly what I said ring true because of the look
on your face when you did the long Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Yes, you're absolutely right. I had no experience in running
a business, running a restaurant, running a nonprofit. We are
a nonprofit organization.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Yeah, you also got to get set up with a five, O,
one C three and that's miserable.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Oh yeah, I mentor people now on all of the
things not to do.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Means you learned by doing them? Probably yes, but really,
how does that work? How do you?
Speaker 1 (28:04):
You and Chris are sitting there looking at each other.
We got a dream, we got this, we got this
little bit of experience, but we don't know what we're doing.
But we're going to go try to do I mean,
I don't even know how that happened. Really, how does
it take us back?
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (28:16):
We go first day.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
You know, we just started talking to friends at our
church about it. This is what we want to do.
And it's interesting the number of people, uh who said
I want to help you with that, who had what
we needed. We had a woman who said, I want
(28:38):
to help you with that, and she was a fundraiser
before she moved to Texas from Kansas. I believe she
was the major fundraiser at a university in Kansas. She said,
I know how to fundraise. I want to help you
with that. I know how to write of ten twenty
(29:00):
three is the form that you filed for your nonprofit?
I know how to do that. Let me help you.
We had another gentleman who was CEO of a restaurant
equipment company.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
You're kidding, No, I.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Had no he was a friend. I had no what
he did. I mean, we had just been friends for
all a long time. I knew he traveled a lot.
But I told him what we wanted to do, and
he said, oh my gosh, I can help you with that.
You ask me how how I did this? God put
all these people in my path. I didn't know what
(29:39):
EJ did. I didn't know what this other woman. You know,
everybody was in the right.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
People were there also.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Read that you were already resigned to You're going to
have to put this thing out away from everything because
rent and a place was so expensive. Yeah, and they're
sitting in front of you at church one day.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
That's that's right. The story with the building is February
of twenty fifteen. You know, I don't I'm not very
good at remembering dates, but boy, that's one.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
I remember well. It February of fifteen.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
You had the dream in thirteen, so you've been doing
prep on this for eighteen month.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Yes, we had been working on applying for the nonprofit
status and we had started raising some money by doing
big cells. I mean the things that we did to
raise money. And you know, boy, if somebody wrote us
one hundred dollars check, I was praising God.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
And a hundred dollar check doesn't cover the spoilage for
the day.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Were you trying to raise one point a million or something?
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Yeah, trying to raise one point five million? You know,
how do you eat an elephant?
Speaker 3 (31:01):
I understand, but my goodness.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Kay, okay, bear with me. We're raising money.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
By the way, the brook you gave me when I
said that speaks to your determination back then, because you
looked at me like I was an idiot for even
saying such a thing. Yes, you're bound and determined clearly, Okay,
so go ahead.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Yes. I had my board of directors. They were getting
us through the processes. I was working every single day
on this, and actually we put together a concert downtown McKinney.
Let me set the stage a little bit. Downtown McKinney,
Texas is this beautiful old historic courthouse which is now
(31:50):
a performing arts center, and mckinne Square is a tourist attraction.
All these wonderful stores that people come to, and we
have october Fest and Home for the Holidays and all
sorts of fun things. It is Norman Rockwell incarnate. And
(32:15):
so we had a concert to raise money our former
mayor Well at the time, he was not our mayor.
George Fuller's wife, Meylee Fuller, drove by and she said,
what's going on? And someone told her what was going on,
(32:37):
and I came out to introduce myself to her. She
has a nonprofit organization, Love Life Foundation, and she donates
to nonprofits, and she had written a check for one
hundred dollars and I came out, I told her what
we were getting ready to do, and my damn, she
added another zero to that check. And that was our
(33:01):
first thousand dollars check. And uh I was, I cried, Yes,
But you know we did like I said, we did.
Every we auctioned off mixers, you know, bias the mixer.
So people would we would auction off a mixer. They
(33:22):
don't get the mixer, they get to give us the
money for a mixer. Anyway, February we were still trying
to raise money. February of twenty fifteen, we had eight
thousand dollars in the bank.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Oh my gosh against a one point five budget.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Yes, if we had gone to into a strip mall,
four blank walls, needing everything from bottom to top at
this point in time, we would have needed one point
five million. Got it, And I said, okay, let's raise
one point five million. February two thousand fifteen, we had
(34:01):
eight thousand in the bank. I'm at church. I sit
on the wrong side of the church. A friend of mine,
who usually goes to the later service, comes to the
early service. So I'm on the wrong side. At my church.
You have your place that.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
You set your pew.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Yes, my pew doesn't have a name on it. But
and I sat on the other side, sat behind her,
not thinking anything. Didn't know she was going to be
at this service. We're Episcopalian. We passed the peace and
instead of saying the peace of the Lord be with you,
I said, Kim, tell me about your location downtown me Kenny,
(34:46):
And she said, I want hugs in my building. We
had the name, you know, she knew all about it.
And she said, come down tomorrow and let's see if
the work in the dream that I had two nights
in a row. It was an open kitchen two years ago.
(35:09):
Two years before. It was an open kitchen so that
customers could see these incredible people working, actually making the food,
actually making those incredible cookies that you just tried. Her
kitchen was an open kitchen, dining room, looks in and
(35:33):
sees what's going on.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
So what did she do for you?
Speaker 2 (35:42):
They made it very affordable for us to move in.
There was a pizza restaurant that was there before us,
and when they moved out, they left everything. And yes,
(36:04):
now they left pizza ovens. We didn't need pizza ovens,
but she gave us the opportunity to sell those pizza ovens,
and keep the funds. Anything that we couldn't use, sell it,
she said. And we kept the funds. So we went
(36:25):
from needing one point five million to needing one hundred
and fifty thousand.
Speaker 3 (36:31):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
Yeah, and so now you actually have something raised to Yes,
you can tell a story.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
We have a place, yes, and we have something that
you can walk in and see. We could bring donors
in and they can see it, envision it. We already
had the staff. I mean, these people were just waiting
to be trained to work at a restaurant. So we
would have events in that space, unraising events in that space,
(37:02):
and we would have our feet She didn't.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
Even charge you rent or anything.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
And she did charge us rent, yes, but it was
not downtown McKenny, it's very expensive. She was very gracious
and did not charge us what everyone else pays.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
So have to be there. That was February of twenty fifteenth. Yes,
so when's you open?
Speaker 2 (37:27):
We opened October the thirteenth of twenty fifteen.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
Only seven chaper seven months later.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Yes. By August we had raised all of the funds
and then we bought the equipment that we needed. Like
I said, we had one gentleman who was on our board,
who was CEO of a restaurant equipment company. So anything
that we needed, most equipment that we needed, he got
(37:56):
donated to us.
Speaker 3 (37:58):
That's unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
But what I'm so impressed by that I think got
missed a little in some of what I've read is that.
Speaker 3 (38:09):
You had a dream. You only had eight thousand dollars
and you didn't quit.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
I mean a lot of people six seven months into
something like hell, this sounded great, but it's just not
going to work. You worked on this for over two
years to just get it open.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
Yeah, why why didn't you give up?
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Well? My question is why not?
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Because it didn't seem when you need one point five
million and you only got eight grand of.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
The bank after about six months, it's going to happen.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
I had faith. I had faith.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
And that concludes part one of our conversation with Ruth Thompson,
and you don't want to miss part two. It's now
able to listen to other guys.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
We can change this country, but it starts with you.
I'll see in part two.
You've got a passion, you've got a great heart, you
have some experience with people with disabilities, but you don't
have anything else.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Really, you're absolutely right. I had no experience in running
a business, running a restaurant, running a nonprofit. You know.
We just started talking to friends at our church about it.
It's interesting the number of people who said, I want
to help you with that. We had a woman she
was the major fundraiser at a university in Kansas. She said,
(00:35):
I know how to fundraise. I want to help you
with that. We had another gentleman who was CEO of
a restaurant equipment company, and he said, oh my gosh,
I can help you with that. We're Episcopalian. We passed
the piece and instead of saying the Peace of the
Lord be with you, I said, Kim, tell me about
(00:55):
your location downtown me Kenny, And she said, I want
hugs in my building. You ask me how I did this?
God put all these people in my path.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney.
I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, I'm a father,
I'm an entrepreneur, and I'm a football coach in Inner
City Memphis, and somehow that last part led to an
oscar for the film about one of my teams. That
movie is called Undefeated. Guys, I believe our country's problems
(01:33):
are never gonna be solved by a bunch of fancy
people in nice suits using big words that nobody ever
uses on CNN and Fox, but rather by an army
of normal folks. That's us, you and me deciding hey,
I can help. That's what Ruth Thompson, the voice you
just heard, has done. Her restaurants ain't no ordinary restaurants.
(01:57):
Hugs Cafe employs adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. That's
eighty five percent of their operating staff. And Ruth's episode
will teach you how to listen to callings on your heart,
how an army of normal folks in your community can
make crazy callings like Ruth's happen, and how people with
(02:21):
disabilities can do far more than our culture empowers them to.
But Ruth and her army are going to change all that,
and I cannot wait for you to meet her. Right
after these brief messages from our general sponsors, Ruth Thompson,
(02:46):
Welcome to Memphis.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Thank you at long last, Yes after to me delays.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
That's okay, that's okay.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
She still brought you a present through all those delays.
You brought me a present.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
I did bring you a present.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Would you bring me I can?
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I brought you wedding cake cookies.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Wedding cake cookies out of town. Hold on, you bring
a fat guy something to eat. Everything stops.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
It is taped.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Open it.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
There's tape.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Look at packaging. That's coolssy.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
This is yes, there you go.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
It's highly packaged.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
So our number one dessert is wedding cake cookies. Oh
my goodness, they taped it.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Well, well it does it taste like wedding cake?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Because I'm not going to say a thing.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
So you put it in your mouth.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Do you want something? Oh yeah, I'm going to give
one to you want to buy cases? Here we go.
I'm not eating the whole one. I'm just eating this.
That is so good.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah, he's gonna eat the rest of it.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Holy all right, everybody. So I'll tell her about the
cake lady on the drive over, Ruth Thompson bringing me cakes.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
And it's because she's a founder or wedding cake cookies,
cake cookies. She's a founder of Hugs Cafe, which is
a little spot and started as a little most spot
in McKinney, Texas. That you were going to be shocked
at what it does and what it has become and
(04:29):
what it continues to become.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
I guess definitely.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
So while I eat yeah this cookie, let's jump right in.
Because Ruth, you were about to retire. I mean, you
were on the verge of retirement. You've lived a full life.
Why don't you just stay comfortable and be done well?
Speaker 2 (04:47):
I hope it's okay to say this right here, but
God's had other plans.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
It's okay to say anything you want to say right here.
And we have plenty of people who listen to us
who have faith. Some are Jewish, I am a Christian,
Some are agnostic. But I think everybody respects people's perspective.
So tell me about how you know God had a
(05:14):
different plan for you other than to retire and go fish.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Yeah. Yeah, and I love fishing, by the way, But yeah,
I was. I was getting ready to retire. And there's
a long story that leads up to it. Do you
want that story that leads up to it?
Speaker 1 (05:30):
We'll get to that. Okay, Why don't you just Tell
me why you didn't retire.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Tell me I didn't retire.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
You're sleeping one night.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, I had a dream two nights in a row,
of a restaurant that employed adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
And this was in twenty twelve. My husband and I
had planned, he had done such a great job all
our lives, planning for twenty thirteen, the year of retirement.
(06:00):
The reply to my dream was, we've got to do it.
God's hitting you at the two by four, We've got
to do it.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Briefly, what was the dream.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
It was a restaurant. And in this restaurant the majority
of the people working there were people with special needs
intellectual and developmental disabilities, down syndrome, autism, three were palsy.
And uh yeah, it's uh we we did it. We
(06:30):
had never worked in a restaurant. Well, I digress. When
my husband was seventeen, he worked in an A and W.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Fast, hardly a restaurant. Yes, yes, they got burgers and floats. Yeah,
I guess so, but yes, in your husband's.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Name, Chris, My husband's name is Chris.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Is it lost on anybody that you started a restaurant
and together your names are Ruth Chris.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
You know, that's how we get people to remember our names.
We introduce ourselves as Ruth Chris.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
No steakhouse, hilarious. All right, So the first dream you
said it was two nights in a row. Yeah, well
explain that. I mean, you dreamed it and then you
dreamed it again. And by the way, I've dreamed things,
and I didn't decide to change my entire life plans
and go do stuff.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
So this was one I dream. It must have been
heavy on your heart.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
It was, it was. And I had been teaching adults
with special needs how to cook it home, and he
would come in and volunteer. So he kind of got
the peace. Chris, my husband, Yes, Chris, and he would volunteer.
He would he got the bug. He fell in love
with a population of people that I had fallen in
(07:48):
love with. We don't have a family member with disabilities,
but we've now got about seventy, no ninety loved ones disabilities.
But you know we had to do it.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
In what capacity?
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Were you working with adults or kids or whomever with disabilities?
You just said before the dream, you'd been we volunteering
teaching people with disabilities how to cook and care for themselves.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Well, I was. There was a new grocery store that
it opened in McKinny right before I'm ken Texas McKinney, Texas,
right before I moved there called Market Street. They had
a cooking school and I was hired as the manager
of the cooking school. My primary job was to book
(08:41):
Dallas local chefs to come in and teach the home
cook how to up his or her game.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
That's kind of cool.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Yeah, it was really a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
And that brings I guess conceivably brings more people into the.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Grocery store to buy. So it's a park to bring
people in.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Absolutely as soon as they take a class, they want
to go down and shop for all of the need ingredients.
And I had a passion for adults with special needs.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Where did that come from?
Speaker 2 (09:13):
That came from Colorado. I lived in Colorado for thirty
years and the last job I had up there was
cear executive director for a company that was a for
profit company that provided care for really families that had
severe children with severe disabilities. We started a day program
(09:39):
there for adults because there's nothing for them after they
age out of school, which is the age of twenty one,
and that's across the nation. So we started a day
program for adults, and I fell in love with a
population of people that are taught me so very much.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
How do you fallm well with the population of people
that the vast majority of folks when they see people
with disabilities turn away or walk the other way, or
at worst stare or are appalled.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
You know, I just think it's my heart. I'll give
you a prime story. Just very recently, I was shopping
in a shoe store, just walking around, and there's a
woman there pushing a child around. The child was twelve
and he's in a stroller, and to me, it was
(10:36):
very obvious that he had autism. He was nonverbal, and
it was just he just had some of those obvious signs.
And I walked up and started talking to him. I mean,
that's what I do. And she's the mother started crying
and she said, most people turn away and walk down
(10:56):
another aisle to avoid us, and you didn't. And that's
just who I am.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
The reason I ask is because when I first met Lisa,
my wife of thirty five years, when I went to
pick her up the very first night at her front door,
I was greeted by a seven year old guy named Ben,
her little brother, who clearly had some form of disability.
(11:23):
He was not downs, was not his ailment, and he
wasn't autistic, But like you say, he had obvious signs
of some disability in his speech and his mannerisms and
his look. But he had a vis fall on his face,
and he introduced himself, shook my hand vigorously, and since then,
(11:45):
for thirty five years, Ben has been a part of
my life. He's my children's uncle, he's my wife's brother,
he's my inlawst son. But I got to tell you,
thirty five years with Ben has not been without a
lot of challenges. We certainly understand the twenty one year
(12:05):
old aging out thing and what to do next, aging
parents in the mid seventies, and how do they care
for a forty something year old, two hundred and fifty
pound guy who, when he gets frustrated, could get angry.
All of the things that I have no doubt if
you have had a heart for and worked with folks
with disabilities, you understand. So I get the bomb crying
(12:30):
as you greeted our autistic twelve year old in a
wheelchair or a stroller. What I don't get is how
you decide a retirement. You want to take this population on.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
It's hard.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
I want to agree with you and say it is.
But we still travel. That's what we wanted to do
when we retired, and we still travel. We have staff,
but we also have these people in the world that
needs somebody to advocate for them, and we have to
(13:10):
be that person.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
And now a few messages from our general sponsors. But first,
we've launched our first six local service clubs around the country.
At a time when only thirty three percent of Americans
are contributing in their community at the level that they
want to. The mission of these clubs is to make
service easier for everyone. The first sex are in Memphis, Oxford, Wichita, Atlanta,
(13:44):
Ozak County, and the Milwaukee area, and North Dutchess County,
which is New York. If you live in one of
these areas, visit the service club section of our site
normal folks dot us and get plugged in like other
Army members that are launching clubs in their communities later
this year, including San Antonio, Lincoln, Nebraska, Huntsville, Alabama, Lincoln County, Ohio,
(14:10):
Lorraine County, Ohio. If you happen to live in one
of these following areas and are interested, email Alex at
Army at normal Folks dot us and he'll get you
connected to them. We'll be right back. You know, you
(14:35):
said you had two dreams. Some would call that a calling.
Do you call it a calling?
Speaker 2 (14:45):
I do? This is our ministry, This is our ministry.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Well, how do you know it's not just a dream?
How do you know it is a calling? And you're
about to retire. You've worked your whole life, Your husband
Chris has, as you said, planned for retirement, and you've
had this dream. Certainly you're passionate about people's disabilities because
(15:13):
of what you've just told us. But for those listening,
we've all had thoughts about things we would like to
do or we think would be good for society, and
then we go on about our daily lives. What about
this was so poignant to you? That this was more
than a dream and it was a calling? And what
(15:36):
does it say about your belief that you had a
responsibility to answer that calling and that at your age,
that calling didn't have an expiration date.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Yeah, a dream, two nights in a row, the same one.
Everything about it I don't believe I have ever had,
and a dream that was so real, I don't think
I have ever had. I did go and talk to
my priest about it, and he said, yes, this is
(16:14):
God talking to you. And he said, but usually God
needs a two by four for me to listen. And
he said, well, maybe to the same dream two nights
in a row as your two by four. We just knew,
we just knew we had to do this and make
a difference in someone else's life.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
It feels like it rides on the coketails of the
introduction that you probably never saw coming was the culinary
program that you talk about, right.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Right, So how'd that start?
Speaker 1 (16:50):
I mean, what I just heard was housewives coming into
buy groceries. I did not hear a culinary program at
a grocery store for people disability.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
So how did it? Moorph?
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Yeah, when I was interviewed for the manager's position. First
of all, when I got to Texas, I wanted to
continue that line of work with adults with disabilities and
could not find anything. There were no opportunities truly at
that time, not only for someone looking for work, but
(17:24):
for that population. It was very slim loved to cook,
had a passion for cooking and hospitality, and the cooking
school it opened. When they asked me what my passion was,
and I told them about my work with adults with
special needs, they said, make it work here. So in Texas,
(17:50):
In Texas, Yes, When I applied for the job, interviewed
for the job as manager of the cooking school m Chinney,
the person interviewing me said, what are you passionate about?
And I told them about my work with adults with
special needs, how I just had this passion for them,
and she said, make it work here. So I started
(18:12):
cooking classes and again, teaching them how to do something
as simple as scrambling eggs and making toast, all the
way up to one class, I got real ambitious and
taught them how to make pasta. Never did that one again.
It was fun. It was fun, but very messy. But
(18:35):
after and we started these classes in two thousand and five.
I retired in two retired in twenty thirteen, and when
I left there, we had over one hundred and twenty
adults with special needs who would take classes from us
in one month.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
That's phenomenal, yes, which obviously is what planted the seed
for the dreams and for what you're doing now. But
during that time I read something that I found fascinating.
You said that it was there that you developed a
hot take, which was, we often treat people disabilities like mascots.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
What in the world are you talking about.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
There? Some people look at adults with disabilities as they're fun.
They make me smile. Yeah, they laugh a lot, but
there's so much more to them, and they want to learn.
(19:41):
They want to learn, so that's what we're doing.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
I guess your your take on mascots is another way
of saying, tongue in cheek that a lot of the
way we think about people with disabilities is condescension.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Yes, yes, I like the mascot word better, but condescending.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
But that's what you're saying.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
True.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Yes, aren't they cute? Yeah, in the South, we might
say bless their heart, bless their heart.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
Or you also tell the story of silverware.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Let's give them just some several jobs if you can
tell that story, And that's so often a restaurant may say, well,
we hire somebody that has disabilities and they roll the silverware,
and it's they can do so much more than just
(20:45):
roll silverware or a grocery store. It irritates me sometimes
when someone says, oh, the local grocery store and I
won't name any names, hires those people and they bag groceries.
Try to put them in the bakery. Oh my gosh,
(21:07):
put somebody with autism in a bakery. You're going to
have some fabulous items coming out of there, and they're
going to be the same way every single time.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
We could attest to that. We just ate it.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
So with that background and that mentality, you have this dream.
But a dream is a long way from starting a restaurant, yes,
which we're going to get to. But I do want
to I do want to just drop a couple of
quotes on you before we go to the actual restaurant
(21:43):
that you said at Huggs. We don't clap for effort.
We train for excellence. We don't clap for effort.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
We train for it.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
In other words, we don't we don't pat folks on
the back for showing up. You have the same expectations
of them on the basics as you do with someone
without disabilities, and you expect them to rise to the occasion.
I want you to talk about that. And you also
said when you lower the bar, people disappear into it.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
I love that quote. Talk about bethose things.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yeah, the first one was.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
You don't clap for effort. We train for excellence.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Absolutely. We have people who have been at the cafe
for ten years. We don't have turnover, and they want
the same thing that you and I and Alex and
everyone else wants in this world, to be successful and
(22:48):
to have their own purpose and training for excellence. We
have one young woman I'm going to call out, Tamika
who is she's on the spectrum and she started she's
very very quiet, but that woman can run our kitchen
(23:11):
and we have promoted her to kitchen lead. And she
started out never having been in a kitchen, but we
trained her for excellence and this is what we've got now.
She now trains if we have a new volunteer, she
(23:31):
trains the new volunteers that come in. If we have
new staff, she trains them. And this is a woman
who just wouldn't talk.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Who was probably destined to roll silverware.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Who is destined to roll silverware. If she were in
another restaurant, that's what she would be doing.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Because your approach is we trained for excellence. We don't
just clap for trying.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
That is correct.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
When you lower the bar, people disappear into it. They do.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
We have another young man, Danny, and Danny also, Oh
my gosh, I wish I'd brought Danny with me. We
now have an ambassador program and some of our mission
based staff will go out when I go out to speak,
and they will go out and speak. Danny is one
of our ambassadors. We could have just let Danny. He
(24:26):
started out in the dishpit as a dishwasher. He could
still be there. He's been there for ten years. At
the cafe, he now runs the front of the house,
the dining room. Some people don't know what front of
the house means. He runs the dining room, he runs
(24:47):
the dishpit. He goes out and speaks about his journey
with Hugs, And we could have left him in the
doing dishes in the dishpit.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
He would have, in other words, if he lowered the
bar to that, he'd disappeared into that forever. Absolutely, we'll
be right back.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
So with that background and mentality and that background of
experience and that background of passion, which, by the way,
we say constantly around here that the beauty and magic
happens when someone's passion intersects with opportunity. Well, you clearly
had the passion, you had the calling and the dream.
(25:45):
But a restaurant that's a long way. And even classes
to teach folks with disabilities how to cook, and even
a background at the grocery store. Although all of that
clearly or steps along the way to setting you up
for this ultimate goal screwing up your retirement, You're still
(26:07):
a long way away from a restaurant, from a facility,
from a location, from having cash flow to or operation
capital to buy food to deal with, to own silverware
and plates and places to sit, and all of the
(26:27):
places all of the things you need to cook, like
stoves and ovens. And I've worked in restaurants. I put
myself through college going through restaurants. They're expensive enterprises to
start up, and your barn rate, meaning those first few
months where are doing nothing but spending money trying to
get things going, often kills enterprises before they ever get going.
(26:48):
And candidly, you've never run a restaurant or run a business,
so I don't even know if you know any of
what I'm talking about at that point in your life.
I'm certain you do now having done this. But great,
you got a passion, you've got a great heart, you
have some experience with people with disabilities. You feel like
you have a calling, you have a dream, but you
(27:09):
don't have anything else. Really, so how does how does
a dream in saying yes to them or calling and
saying yes to them? How does opening a real world
cafe with that basis?
Speaker 3 (27:25):
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Clearly what I said ring true because of the look
on your face when you did the long Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Yes, you're absolutely right. I had no experience in running
a business, running a restaurant, running a nonprofit. We are
a nonprofit organization.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Yeah, you also got to get set up with a five, O,
one C three and that's miserable.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Oh yeah, I mentor people now on all of the
things not to do.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Means you learned by doing them? Probably yes, but really,
how does that work? How do you?
Speaker 1 (28:04):
You and Chris are sitting there looking at each other.
We got a dream, we got this, we got this
little bit of experience, but we don't know what we're doing.
But we're going to go try to do I mean,
I don't even know how that happened. Really, how does
it take us back?
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (28:16):
We go first day.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
You know, we just started talking to friends at our
church about it. This is what we want to do.
And it's interesting the number of people, uh who said
I want to help you with that, who had what
we needed. We had a woman who said, I want
(28:38):
to help you with that, and she was a fundraiser
before she moved to Texas from Kansas. I believe she
was the major fundraiser at a university in Kansas. She said,
I know how to fundraise. I want to help you
with that. I know how to write of ten twenty
(29:00):
three is the form that you filed for your nonprofit?
I know how to do that. Let me help you.
We had another gentleman who was CEO of a restaurant
equipment company.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
You're kidding, No, I.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Had no he was a friend. I had no what
he did. I mean, we had just been friends for
all a long time. I knew he traveled a lot.
But I told him what we wanted to do, and
he said, oh my gosh, I can help you with that.
You ask me how how I did this? God put
all these people in my path. I didn't know what
(29:39):
EJ did. I didn't know what this other woman. You know,
everybody was in the right.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
People were there also.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Read that you were already resigned to You're going to
have to put this thing out away from everything because
rent and a place was so expensive. Yeah, and they're
sitting in front of you at church one day.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
That's that's right. The story with the building is February
of twenty fifteen. You know, I don't I'm not very
good at remembering dates, but boy, that's one.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
I remember well. It February of fifteen.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
You had the dream in thirteen, so you've been doing
prep on this for eighteen month.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Yes, we had been working on applying for the nonprofit
status and we had started raising some money by doing
big cells. I mean the things that we did to
raise money. And you know, boy, if somebody wrote us
one hundred dollars check, I was praising God.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
And a hundred dollar check doesn't cover the spoilage for
the day.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Were you trying to raise one point a million or something?
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Yeah, trying to raise one point five million? You know,
how do you eat an elephant?
Speaker 3 (31:01):
I understand, but my goodness.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Kay, okay, bear with me. We're raising money.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
By the way, the brook you gave me when I
said that speaks to your determination back then, because you
looked at me like I was an idiot for even
saying such a thing. Yes, you're bound and determined clearly, Okay,
so go ahead.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Yes. I had my board of directors. They were getting
us through the processes. I was working every single day
on this, and actually we put together a concert downtown McKinney.
Let me set the stage a little bit. Downtown McKinney,
Texas is this beautiful old historic courthouse which is now
(31:50):
a performing arts center, and mckinne Square is a tourist attraction.
All these wonderful stores that people come to, and we
have october Fest and Home for the Holidays and all
sorts of fun things. It is Norman Rockwell incarnate. And
(32:15):
so we had a concert to raise money our former
mayor Well at the time, he was not our mayor.
George Fuller's wife, Meylee Fuller, drove by and she said,
what's going on? And someone told her what was going on,
(32:37):
and I came out to introduce myself to her. She
has a nonprofit organization, Love Life Foundation, and she donates
to nonprofits, and she had written a check for one
hundred dollars and I came out, I told her what
we were getting ready to do, and my damn, she
added another zero to that check. And that was our
(33:01):
first thousand dollars check. And uh I was, I cried, Yes,
But you know we did like I said, we did.
Every we auctioned off mixers, you know, bias the mixer.
So people would we would auction off a mixer. They
(33:22):
don't get the mixer, they get to give us the
money for a mixer. Anyway, February we were still trying
to raise money. February of twenty fifteen, we had eight
thousand dollars in the bank.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Oh my gosh against a one point five budget.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Yes, if we had gone to into a strip mall,
four blank walls, needing everything from bottom to top at
this point in time, we would have needed one point
five million. Got it, And I said, okay, let's raise
one point five million. February two thousand fifteen, we had
(34:01):
eight thousand in the bank. I'm at church. I sit
on the wrong side of the church. A friend of mine,
who usually goes to the later service, comes to the
early service. So I'm on the wrong side. At my church.
You have your place that.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
You set your pew.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Yes, my pew doesn't have a name on it. But
and I sat on the other side, sat behind her,
not thinking anything. Didn't know she was going to be
at this service. We're Episcopalian. We passed the peace and
instead of saying the peace of the Lord be with you,
I said, Kim, tell me about your location downtown me Kenny,
(34:46):
And she said, I want hugs in my building. We
had the name, you know, she knew all about it.
And she said, come down tomorrow and let's see if
the work in the dream that I had two nights
in a row. It was an open kitchen two years ago.
(35:09):
Two years before. It was an open kitchen so that
customers could see these incredible people working, actually making the food,
actually making those incredible cookies that you just tried. Her
kitchen was an open kitchen, dining room, looks in and
(35:33):
sees what's going on.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
So what did she do for you?
Speaker 2 (35:42):
They made it very affordable for us to move in.
There was a pizza restaurant that was there before us,
and when they moved out, they left everything. And yes,
(36:04):
now they left pizza ovens. We didn't need pizza ovens,
but she gave us the opportunity to sell those pizza ovens,
and keep the funds. Anything that we couldn't use, sell it,
she said. And we kept the funds. So we went
(36:25):
from needing one point five million to needing one hundred
and fifty thousand.
Speaker 3 (36:31):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
Yeah, and so now you actually have something raised to Yes,
you can tell a story.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
We have a place, yes, and we have something that
you can walk in and see. We could bring donors
in and they can see it, envision it. We already
had the staff. I mean, these people were just waiting
to be trained to work at a restaurant. So we
would have events in that space, unraising events in that space,
(37:02):
and we would have our feet She didn't.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
Even charge you rent or anything.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
And she did charge us rent, yes, but it was
not downtown McKenny, it's very expensive. She was very gracious
and did not charge us what everyone else pays.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
So have to be there. That was February of twenty fifteenth. Yes,
so when's you open?
Speaker 2 (37:27):
We opened October the thirteenth of twenty fifteen.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
Only seven chaper seven months later.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Yes. By August we had raised all of the funds
and then we bought the equipment that we needed. Like
I said, we had one gentleman who was on our board,
who was CEO of a restaurant equipment company. So anything
that we needed, most equipment that we needed, he got
(37:56):
donated to us.
Speaker 3 (37:58):
That's unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
But what I'm so impressed by that I think got
missed a little in some of what I've read is that.
Speaker 3 (38:09):
You had a dream. You only had eight thousand dollars
and you didn't quit.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
I mean a lot of people six seven months into
something like hell, this sounded great, but it's just not
going to work. You worked on this for over two
years to just get it open.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
Yeah, why why didn't you give up?
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Well? My question is why not?
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Because it didn't seem when you need one point five
million and you only got eight grand of.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
The bank after about six months, it's going to happen.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
I had faith. I had faith.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
And that concludes part one of our conversation with Ruth Thompson,
and you don't want to miss part two. It's now
able to listen to other guys.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
We can change this country, but it starts with you.
I'll see in part two.
Host
Bill Courtney
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