An Army of Normal Folks - Amy Crenshaw’s Cafe: Where The Homeless and Bankers Eat Together (Pt 1)

Episode Date: August 15, 2023

Amy and her husband Jim adopted 6 kids. And because Amy apparently didn’t have enough on her plate, she then founded ComeUnity Cafe in Jackson, TN. The non-profit, donation-based cafe has a suggested donation amount and if you can’t afford it, you can volunteer there for your meal. This extraordinary model enables everyone to break bread together and be in community with one another. Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This folder's open and he's showing me all this and he said, now tell me getting how this is going to work with volunteers and you know, and I said, well, somebody comes in needs a meal, then have the money to pay for it and he goes, whoa, he goes like, like the homeless And I was like, yeah, the homeless, the underserved. And he closes his folder. He closes his folder. Doesn't even realize he's done it and kind of pushes it across the, you know, midway across the table and says, well, you know, I just can't do it for less than this. And I'd have to have a five year contract.

And I was just, we don't want you. Exactly. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ Welcome to an Army of Normal Folks. I'm Bill Courtney. I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, a father, an entrepreneur. And I've been a football coach and intercity Memphis

in the last part unintentionally led to an Oscar for the film about our team. It's called undefeated. I believe our country's problems will never be solved by a bunch of fancy people and nice suits, talking big words and nobody understands on CNN and Fox. But rather by an army of normal folks, us, just you and me deciding, hey, I can help. That's what Amy Krenshaw, the voice we just heard, is done. Amy is the founder of Community Cafe, a non-profit restaurant in Jackson, Tennessee that has no prices and only a

suggested donation for your meal. And if you can't afford to pay, you simply volunteer for an hour for your meal. This unbelievable model allows the whole community to come together like never before, with long family-style tables where folks like doctors, construction workers, and even the homeless dine together side-by-side every day. You heard how Amy got some pushback at first, but they're still going strong almost 10 years later. And I think there should be one of these things in every community across our country.

And this is not the only extraordinary thing that Amy's done as you're about to hear, right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. Amy Crenshaw, how are you? I'm good, how are you? I'm great. It's so good to have you with us. I have a thousand questions for you. Obviously, we're going to get to Community Cafe, spelled C-O-M-E, capital U-N-I-T-Y, community, community cafe, and what that's about. But I want to, I want to hear more about you. I want to know about the the chick behind community cafe that has 10 children and is from Memphis and there's just, you're just kind of cool. So I want to hear about you. Where'd you grow up? I grew up in Germantown. Germantown, Tennessee, which is a sub-urban. Right, right.

It's not, you know, it's upper middle class, I guess. Is that right? Brothers, sisters. I had four brothers growing up. I went to Germantown High School and then went to Methodist School of Nursing. Are you a nurse? I am a nurse. Did you work? Would you work? I worked in Liberand delivery, Methodist Hospital Central until Methodist Hospital North opened up. I guess I did OB nursing for about eight years and then our first son. Were you getting practice for having a bunch of kids yourself? Yes, I was getting practice. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Our first child was born on December 21st. I was supposed to be working the last two of my night shifts before I quit. Really? Because you wanted

to be a mom. I wanted to be a stay home mom. Absolutely. And went into work and things picked up personally. And he was was born the next morning. So it didn't finish up. Well, at least you were there. At least I was there, yes. Came home, my husband had been on call the night that night. You're husband. The night before.

He's a doctor. He's a physician. And he had been on call. What kind? He's a cardiologist. And he was actually in his fellowship. But he had been on call and What kind? He's a cardiologist. And he was actually in his fellowship. But he had been on call and came home before I went to work and said,

just so you know tonight would not be a good night if you had this baby. Because I am wiped out. And I was like, I still have three weeks. No problem. I don't sweat it. Went to work. Yeah, my water broke and I called him and said,

hey, I'm coming home for a little while. And he said, what? And I said, yeah, we're going to have a baby. And he was like, I told you this was not a good night, but you know, maybe it's come when they do. That's unreal. So, and then stayed home after. So a nurse made to a doc and just starting your family and I guess Germantown or Memphis area.

Memphis. Right. But you live in Jackson now. We do. We live in Jackson now when he finished his fellowship. Jackson, sorry, Jackson to see. Yeah, sure. Just down the road.

Right. And someday they'll probably both grow together. They might. It keeps going. It's heading that way. That's right. Two of our children were born here in Memphis. Um, one of them, the third one was born in Jackson, shortly after we moved there. And then about six years later, we started adopting. All right, so I can't wait to hear about that because I only understand a little bit and we're gonna share it with everybody,

but how does your oldest child? He just turned 33. All right, and your youngest is... Getting ready to be 17. Holy smokes. That's a lot of kids in between that 16 years. That's a lot of kids. So you had four naturally.

We had three naturally. We had three naturally. And then we decided to start adopting. And I think I think I read that we're talking Ethiopia and China. Ethiopian China. Okay. You got to give me the background on that and the reasons and everything. Yeah. Which first of all, I think it's beautiful. And I mean, when you guys gather around the Thanksgiving dinner table, it must look like the United Nations. That's what we always say. We've got the United Nations under one room. I love it. Yeah. So tell me about it.

So at church in Jackson, there was a middle-aged couple there. I was going to say young, but they weren't so young, but they had moved back to Jackson. They had been living in Guangzhou, China. I think he was with PNG, and they had brought, and I think they had brought home twin baby girls that they had adopted, and they were very good and very vocal about sharing about the one child law and also the

pride of baby girls. Well, we'll talk about that in China. Okay. Well, there's not a one child law anymore. I think there was. There was. Yes. And probably gosh, that started just heard the other day. I should remember the dates, but maybe in the 70s or 80s that started and then that actually ended sometime in maybe mid 2000. I don't know if what I've read is true or not or even if I'm imagining that I read something but I'm gonna ask you because obviously you would know but my understanding is that the one child was, that the government was, were only allowing couples to have one child, which meant that couples really wanted boys so they could continue their bloodline. And often if they had a girl, they would,

this sounds horrible, but they would give the child up for adoption, leave an orphanage, or sometimes throw them in the water. Yeah. They would simply abandon them. Mm-hmm. Because they wanted their one child to be a male. Yeah. And males, I think, I might be misquoting this, but technically by law are required to take

care of their parents in their old age, so they definitely wanted a boy. Oh, so the parents wanted a boy so they had a caretaker. Yes, and also to carry on, yeah, obviously to carry on the boy. I get it, but hearing all of that and revis- I hadn't thought about this in ages, but revisiting that is, that's terrific.

It is, it is. It's very sad. So this couple comes back to your shirt. Yeah, and they have twin daughters. Twin daughters. Most likely abandoned because of the unchopped law. They were. And as a matter of fact, it's a funny story and and I'm probably getting this wrong totally wrong, but it was something like the wife had heard about but it was something like the wife had heard about, you know, the adoptions and the plight of the baby girls and they had older grown children that I don't think lived with them at the time. I think they were all grown and flown. But she said the wife said to the husband one day when he got home, she said, you know,

I need to tell you this story on her today. So she was talking about the children. She said, I really think we need to adopt. And he said, yeah, yeah, he said probably not. But I tell you what, if the Lord of Bandits won on our doorstep, well, no, no, no, no, If the Lord of Bandits won on our doorstep, we'll keep it. Yeah. And and so she supposedly was, you know, had gone about her day one day and was walking up the stairwell because a lot of the buildings don't have elevators or escalators. Walking up the stairs to their apartment on the fifth floor, seventh floor, whatever it was. And there's babies. And there's two babies. fifth floor, seventh floor, whatever it was. And there's babies. And there's two babies. Abandoned.

Abandoned. Some would say the Lord dropped some babies on their doorstep. The Lord dropped those babies on their doorstep. Okay, so they show up at Jackson with these babies. And they're great about sharing the whole story. Well, that's great, but the Lord didn't job any Chinese babies on your doorstep at Jackson. No, no, no, no, no.

So our youngest daughter at the time was probably, gosh, she was probably four. Yeah. Kara. And Kara ironically is the one that's married and isn't really sure she wants to be a mom. So it's really kind of funny because she was the one that would say every night in her prayers,

she'd say her prayers, and then she'd get through and she'd go, and God, please let Daddy change his heart about bringing a baby home from China. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Yeah. So precious. And my husband was quite resistant, he would say, and just said, I mean, I don't have time.

He was in the busiest time in his practice. He's a cardiologist, he's got a practice. He already has a wife and three children. Exactly. That's a big step. And he said, I don't have time for the ones we have. And that makes me feel guilty. Right.

And my not immediate comeback, but later on, I said to him, but don't you think that one parent that's a full-time parent and then has the support of the second parent is better than no parents at all, better than a child languishing in an orphanage. And I think that got to. And very unwanted to that country. Yeah. So anyways, he started asking his men's group,

men's prayer group, Bible study group to pray about it with him and they did. And there were little background, there were four guys in his practice at that point. They're now 10 big, but there were four guys and one of them was leaving. When he came home that night, he said, four guys and one of them was leaving. When he came home that night, he said, Dr. Chip's leaving and it's gonna be crazy. And I said, well, I guess it's a really good time to talk about adopting then, huh? And he said, you know, as a matter of fact, I think we need to do it.

Wow. And he likes to tell people that don't tell Amy that something can happen because it'll Immediately, not sooner. He would like to tell you that I had I had already called the adoption agency the next day and had all the paper work Done it didn't really happen like that but May was home with us within a year of that time So that was a child for first adoption. That was child for first adoption. And then you decided, let's go to Africa because that sounds good too. No, we decided to go back to China

because we thought, hey, we need a boy. I don't know how that happened. But Cooper came next about two years later and that was about a year long practice or process. And then let's see, then Leah came home and Leah is autistic and she has a seizure disorder. And she knows when you adopt her. No, we knew she had a seizure disorder and um, okay, I have a question. Yeah. Uh, I have my life Lisa, who is my compass and the light of my life. Her brother, who when I started dating Lisa 32 years ago, Ben was, I think, eight. So Ben's grown up with me and I've grown up with Ben, Ben's my brother-in-law, but he's

more like my brother and he's special needs. And he has a lot of work. Now, he has a lot of joy. He's a lot of joy. And we love him. And he don't misunderstand. But he is a lot of work. How when your, when children with disabilities or difficulties are born to you naturally, that's what God gives you and you do the best you can. It's a whole nother thing to choose that. And I have always wondered when parents adopt a child that has issues knowingly brings into their home that's going to require more time, effort, work. And let's be honest, heartache, but they do it anyway. I mean, to me, there's a special place in heaven for folks that do that.

And so you're telling me, you had your choice of babies in China and you chose one that had a Caesar disorder that and if if child has a Caesar disorder in infant, you're a nurse, a pediatric nurse and your husband's a doctor, you had to know there was a probability of other problems. Yeah, yeah. But you did it anyway, which is amazing. Yeah, we did think it was a simple seizure disorder. Well, not so simple, but we did think it was a seizure disorder, but did know that there was anything else. And yeah, there's always the what-ifs, but there's always what-ifs with, you know,

any of the other kids we adopted or even what-ifs with our own children. But why did you make that decision knowing the difficulty when there were babies that didn't have that? Part of the story actually just kind of pulled us in also. We had gone to a children's home that run by American missionaries in China one summer took a small group from our church and we met Leah. Leah, the story I think goes that she had And Leah, the story, I think goes that she had, she had paperwork in, she was supposed to be adopted by a couple that was living in Beijing and would maybe teaching English,

or I don't know what they were doing, but they would come and see her every weekend and they even got permission from the orphanage director to take her home occasionally to their home and they wanted to adopt her while they backed out of the adoption. And she was two and a half or three at the time. So she'd already started probably bonding a little with each other.

She had, she had started bonding with these people. And yeah, it was, it was really sad and we It's kind of weird, but and and it's kind it's very much a god thing that we didn't know about her other difficulties and that I think he almost Protected us from knowing some of her other difficulties In order to get her in our house. I don't know what, you know, I, yeah, it, I don't even know what to say about all that, but, but we did not know she was autistic. We did know that she had a temper like a Tasmanian devil. And she had no manners because the nannies at the orphanage would literally give her whatever she wanted because they to keep her shut up. Yeah, they thought that if they enabled it

Well, yeah, they did and they also thought that Because of her seizure disorder if they caused her to get upset she would have a seizure good grief. Yeah, so switch ultimately Didn't serve her well at all. No, no, not at all Funny story is is that shortly after we got home with her, I loved this story. We have animals, so we had dogs, and we had a friend of ours staying with us

that was a Chinese lady. And another long, long story. She was here having her second child. I look as though the one child rule. Yeah, so she had gotten over here. Yeah. Anyways, we're sitting there eating lunch and Leah didn't really even speak much Mandarin and wasn't picking up on English at all. But she said to this lady, she said something in Leah knees or whatever she was speaking in, but the woman understood and she said, hmm, she said, I like the dog,

but my mom has a big nose. And I thought, okay, this is probably going to be okay. Well, it was kind of okay. Leah, yeah, just put it this way. Leah can be very aggressive. She's teeny tiny, this way. Leah can be very aggressive. She's teeny tiny, but she does have just, she wants a smack, she'll smack you. Although she's doing a whole lot better. But the going joke at our house is with our older kids getting married now, you really have not become part of the family until Leah just smacks you. So yeah. All right. so you have that. And now you're going to Ethiopia. Nope, not yet, not yet. So we've got Leah. Oh, so back up to when we brought Cooper home, we were on vacation when the adoption agency called and said, Hey, we have two boys that you might want to look at. And we always went special needs. Simple special needs. May had a cleft lip that had been repaired in China,

no cleft palate involvement. Cooper had a cleft lip and cleft palate that were both repaired and more beautiful repair jobs. Leah, her seizure disorder. And then Mac had been one of those two boys, believe it or not, that we chose between when we adopted Cooper. And the only reason I really remembered that was one. He was from this tiny island off the

southern tip of China, Hainan Dao, and he was from Haikou City, and to his picture, he had on a bright Hawaiian print shirt and he had the biggest goofiest smile on his face. And I said, he looks like, do you remember the Robin Williams movie, Paulie? Yeah, sure. Okay, well, he looked like the Robin Williams of China. He was the goofiest, cutest looking kid I'd ever seen. Well, when somebody, you know, back then, there were a lot of Facebook adoption groups and whatnot. And I was usually only on the ones that my kids were from that area, or even specific orphanages. Well, somebody was advocating for this young fella. He was six years old, and they said his paperwork had been with three other orphanages, or three other adoption agencies,

and if he didn't get adopted soon, and my husband and I had already kind of started talking about maybe adopting one more boy, so they said if he doesn't get adopted soon, and his paperwork was returned to the Civil Affairs Office in China that he would be declared unadoptable. And I was like, what happened? What happened?

What happened? What happened? They usually stay in the orphanage and then may end up working in the orphanage, but my understanding, and again, I don't know this is true, that once they're 18, if they're not asked to stay and work at the orphanage that they're kind of turned out. I don't know that that's true. I don't know. So anyways, I called my...

That's also horrific. Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of horrific things in the whole world. Well, there is a lot of horrific things, but you're made to this conversation. That is sad. It is. It's very sad. Anyways, I called my husband at work. I mean, the truth is, you and your husband are saving lives.

I hope so. Are you probably, I know that your humility probably keeps you from saying, absolutely, but I'm gonna say it. I mean, you're saving lives. We at least made a difference in their lives. You sure do. So you get?

So anyways, I see this picture of this child and I was like, this cannot be. Did you name him Robin? No. He should have. No, no. But before I called my husband and said, you are never going to believe this. I called a friend of mine. Well, I called the adoption agency and that he was listed with. And I said, any chance you can find out if this young man has been with Bethany Christian services who we had used. And she said, you know, I don't know,

but I've got a friend that works for Bethany. I'll call her and see if his paperwork has been with Bethany. She calls me back within a half an hour and said, Amy, she said, he was with Bethany. I get goosebumps telling this story. He was listed with Bethany and you guys looked at him two years ago.

Wow. And I said, okay. Okay. Let me call my husband. We're about to have another one. Yeah, we're about to have another boy. So yeah, so I called my husband. He said, absolutely.

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We'll be right back. I think I got it now. Let me, let me ask this. So you adopted all the kids in China and had to go to Ethiopia because there were none left. Maybe something like that. Okay. Now in the meantime, we had gotten involved with show honours hope. Steven and Marybeth Chapman's adoption assistance program in Nashville. And we were at their fundraiser one November, fabulous, fabulous weekend and lots of fun

and lots of adoption stories. And there was some adoption story told about, and I can't even remember, you know, now it's like I can't even remember the whole story, but a couple shared about adopting from Ethiopia and adopting maybe even twins or something. I don't know. We were doing house church at that point, and Jim one night in house church,

just my husband, Jim, sorry. Just says how the clear blue something about, yeah, I think somebody said in our house group, house church group said, well, do you all think you're done adopting? And Jim goes, well, I don't know, we might, we might need to go get twin boys from Ethiopia. And I kind of looked at him like, you have lost your mind. What are you talking about?

I, this is new to me, but we started talking about it and just felt like it was a good thing to do. And next question is, why twin boys or why two boys? And my husband will simply tell you that, you know what, all of us are Caucasian. We all had light skin. The Chinese, there were four of them that, you know, kind of were all bonded together.

Here's this group of Caucasians, this group of Chinese, and we didn't want one child to be the only dark skin child in the family. I mean, hate to say that. Well, now that's really interesting. He just said I don't want one of our children to ever feel like He's alone. He's alone or she's alone or different. Yeah so we started the process and on my

50th birthday, whoo, that was a long time ago 50th birthday. Whew, that was a long time ago. On my 50th birthday, our adoption agency calls and she said, well, I don't have twins for you, but I have the next best thing. And she said, I have a set of school siblings that are six and three. And they were absolutely the cutest little fellas I'd ever seen. And I said, Debbie, I said, today's my 50th birthday.

I said, I will just tell you that Jim will say yes. Wow. So yeah, within a year, we were over there picking them up. Yeah. And they are absolutely the most magical kind, sweet, loving. I could go on and on about that. So when you all go to Walmart, we don't go to Walmart. When you go to Walmart or maybe you shop at Target, but when you all go, folks have got to look at this clan and wonder what and Lord's name came down from,

I mean, what you, what's going on? I mean, do you ever take the whole clan out to eat? At a restaurant? Occasionally. Occasionally. I mean, that's, people have got to look at you and say, what in goodness name is going on? Well, the funniest thing was,

even before we started adopting, well, maybe we had, I think maybe we had May and Cooper. So we probably had five kids. We were teasing our older kids and we told them we were going to buy 12 passenger van. Well, we really did buy 12 passenger van because we were also sports parents and we always had extra kids. Our house was the dad. I'm surprised that 12 passenger got it. Well, some money to get with those 15 passengers. Yeah, sometimes barely. But anyways, I always, always got because I took the kids pretty much everywhere. Yeah. You know, with me when they were out of school and dad was, you know,

still at work or something, yeah, we'd go. So yeah, we'd load up and people, I can't tell you how many times people asked me if we were a church nursery, a church group, a nursery school. People probably thought you were just the bus driver of the mother. Exactly. They did. That is so funny. Honestly, you know, Lisa and I, when we came up, we were broke. We are four kids, we're four kids in four years, meaning they were one, two, three, and four, or pick a number, four, five, three, and four, or pick a number, four, five, six, and seven. Well, back then, you know, the restaurant Charlie's. Yeah, oh, yeah. Yeah, back then on Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays,

kids under 12, eight, free. So we would always go once a week, because Lisa and I could get a really nice meal. And it wouldn't cost that much because all the kids ate free. I bet they didn't want to see you coming. I bet they didn't see you. You could have bankrupted them. Yeah. But now once those boys grew some, they were like, oh, come on because let me tell you, those boys can eat.

Those boys can eat. There's still three of them at home and they can eat. Well, let's talk about eating. Okay, let's talk about eating. Okay, let's talk about eating. Because honestly, that in and of itself is worthy of being a member of the army of normal folks because a girl who grows up in a middle class suburban neighborhood in Germantown and gets her nursing degree and she and her husband feel called to have all of those children. And that's just an amazing story. But the reason I wanted to get into that is just kind of the, I think it speaks to your heart. And I think it speaks to your sense of service. And the enormous amount of love and concern

you have to have for just people to create the family you've created is beautiful and it's actually hilarious. I mean, I, it's Casey Jones still on Jackson. Yeah. They got the buffet and they're the product that fished anything. You ever took that crew to that thing? We probably have been there. I don't know if it was the whole crew or not. But ironically, we were just there right before Christmas because Woodman of the world did something for the cafe and then they had everybody. Yeah. Yeah.

Woodman of the world is still around. I'll do that, go. So, y'all, Woodman of the world is a life insurance company that's actually a non-profit. So they invest what would be their profits back into their communities as donations. You're not going to believe this, but my father passed away not too long ago, and I got a box of old belongings from his father, which is my paternal grandfather, who I was actually very, very not close to the ultimate, not at unfortunately, very close to my grandfather. My grandfather paid basketball and baseball for Ole Miss, and I went to Ole Miss.

So I wanted that picture of him, actually won the Southern Conference in 1933, and his picture of my grandfather's Ole Miss shooting form with his team. So I got a box of stuff nobody else would care about, but me. And in it was a, a woodman of the world, metal with a red, white and blue ribbon going down it from the woodman of the world convention from the thirties and browns full Tennessee. Oh my goodness. Yeah.

That's something to hang on to. Well, I do. I have it. When you just said, woodman in the world, I thought I'll be dead, my goodness. Yeah. That's something to hang on to. Well, I do. I have it. When you just said, what in the world, I thought I'll be dead, God. Yeah. I literally just got this a month ago. Small world, isn't it?

It is funny, the things that you run across. My parents have both been deceased for years. But when we sold our house in Jackson and moved out north to Mileyland, north of Jackson. North of Jackson. North of Jackson, sorry. And moved out to the country. Some of those boxes had

stuff in it that I had not been through for years. Well, our oldest son is a crop duster owns his own crop duster. Oh, your oldest son, the first one out of the loom. Yeah. The one that came through weeks early. He's a crop duster. He flies airplanes and and this crop duster. Hey. Does that not scare you those guys whoop around and come down some low? I know. It doesn't, I'm quite an adventurous kind of person.

I wave you up the throne with them. Yes. No, no, no, because they're only one seat. If you ever, if you ever joins the big boys and buys one of those two seat or crop duster. You're in it. Oh, without a doubt. I've asked him if I could sit in the hopper.

So maybe I have it wrong. Maybe all these kids didn't because you have a big heart. You just want to do something fun and crazy. Yeah. Yeah. How maybe a little bit of both. Oh, gosh. But anyways, the funny thing was was, okay, so I've got this son that's a crop duster

and owns, you know, a couple planes and, you know, what not. You know, doing this thing. Yeah, kind of, kind of an air cowboy. Yeah, yeah. And got a second one actually that's a university Memphis that wants to go to work for FedEx. He's in a pilot program. But anyways, going through my dad's stuff

that because we had downsized, believe it or not, because there's only three kids at home. And- Only. Only three kids at home. Only three kids at home. And I pulled the certificate out, and I looked at it, and it was my dad's first solo flight

certificate, and I had totally forgotten that he had ever taken flight lessons. And he soloed. And it actually had, you know, it was kind of this really cool drawing. And it had the tail number on the plane that he flew. My son went and looked up the tail number.

And that plane had just gone out of commission like in 2017. And this was back in 1952. Is that not crazy? It was crazy. So it is. It's a whole thing. Yes, though.

Yes, though. So. Way off subject. Guys, everything has something to do with something. All of this just shows that Amy is a normal person. And if we stop the story right here, Amy Khrinshal would be a heck of a member of the Army of Normal Folks, adopting six kids. But the story is far from over. The story of

community cafe after Now, we're going to get into the whole story of it, but the Clifnot version is community cafe is a cafe in Jackson, Tennessee where anybody can see that's why it's community cafe and it's spelled C O M E U N A T Y C M community cafe and so what I understand is and I want you to add color to this for us, is that it's a place with really healthy food that if you don't have a diamond in your pocket, you can eat and you can be treated with respect, you can be retreated with decency and served a really good meal. And if you do have just a couple of dollars in your pocket, you too can be served even if you can't afford the full price of your meal. And if you do have just a couple of dollars in your pocket, you too can be served, even if you can't afford the full price of your meal. But if you come in and your meal

is $12 and you got 20 bucks, you can do 20 bucks and help offset the cost of some folks that can't afford to eat. Exactly. Okay. Well, that's that's weird. How in the world did you come up with that? I didn't come up with that. Well, tell me about it. So our our three older kids grew up going to a summer camp out in Colorado, a Christian sports camp. And then this sports camp actually came up with the idea that they were going gonna offer a gap year between high school and college for kids that didn't quite know what they wanted to do. Like being a crop duster. Like being a crop duster. Yeah, that's another whole story because that wasn't his first choice, but it was probably what he was meant to do. Got it. All along and we made him go to college. But yeah, we won't do that again.

go to college, but yeah, we won't do that again. Anyways, our two daughters, second born, third born, had gone to camp. And when they started talking about this, starting this gap year, and what it was going to be was the first semester they were going to spend the end downtown Denver. And they were going to do intercity ministry and or cultural studies. Kind of, kind of US mission work. Yes. Yes, for the first semester. And they would have an internship in one of the nonprofits or get it two hours and then go to college. They've got that experience. Right. And they had to have plans to go to college. Basically, they had to have already because they didn't want kids just coming and throwing away and then going, yeah. And then the second semester they would go overseas and they went to some really cool

places overseas. But the first year that she'll be with, she back up a little side story. We had started doing church or participating in a church that was called Church Without Walls in downtown Jackson. There was a church without wall, so a lot of street people under served. And then I was also on the board at area relief ministries in Jackson.

So in Jackson, you are already working with homeless underserved. We had gotten to know a lot of the homeless, especially in downtown Jackson, and kind of knew the need. Can I tell you something? Yeah. Jackson doesn't strike me as a place where there would be a lot of homeless.

Exactly. But for those who are who are listening there for me, we're Jackson. I mean, Jackson is what, probably 150, 200,000 people. Oh, not even that many. 70, 75,000 now. Yeah. probably 150 to 200,000 people. Oh, not even that many. 70, 75,000 now. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of like a three or four exit stop on the interstate.

It's nice. It's got a couple of small colleges, I think. And it's got some good schools and it's got some nice restaurants. But it's not a place that you would, it's not the urban setting where you expect to find homeless people in downtown or shelters. And so when I hear homeless in Jackson, I almost feel like that guy in the Antigriffus show

that would get drunk and check himself in the jail, the one homeless guy in town. I wouldn't think of that, but there's a community of homeless in Jackson. Anywhere between five and 700 people. That's phenomenal. There's a couple tent camps. We don't even at this point now it's in the works, but we don't even have a full-time shelter. So area relief ministries actually has room in the end where churches in Jackson volunteer to house. And right now it's only homeless men. There are a couple shelters for women that are not just drop-in shelters, but more, you have to actually be able to get in, which it's not real difficult. We don't, although I think over the last nine years since we started the cafe, I've seen a larger population

of homeless women. Now, I don't know if it's just because I'm noticing them more, but at first, most of our volunteers that were coming in for a meal were male. And now we have more females. And so you're going to this church without walls thing, which is basically a downtown Sunday worship service pretty much opened every place.

Lay pastor that just basically he will tell you, need a small humble guy and he would just tell you that he was just there to tell people that Jesus loved them. To some people who probably felt like nobody loved him. Exactly. Exactly. So you're doing that simultaneously. Your girls are in Denver. Jesus love them to some people who probably felt like nobody love exactly So you're doing that simultaneously your girls are in Denver right? Can you establish the screw around for you? Playing around maybe play it around yeah, okay playing around probably although they're actually awesome girls I get it. I'm not saying they're not listen. I had one do a

They were having them one of them. I did a gap here. She's a great girl But she wasn't doing much study in this what I'm saying. they're not. Listen, I had one to a gap year. They were having them. One of them did a gap year. She's a great girl, but she wasn't doing much studying is what I'm saying. Okay, okay. Well, both of them, I believe it or not, were for a average in high school. Oh, my kid, my daughter was too. I'm just saying during the gap year. She was having fun. She built some dams. Well, that's cool. No, she said she was starting a new job.

I'm not saying she didn't do cool stuff, but she wasn't studying. Yeah. Oh, no, no. No, she said she was smart. No, I'm not saying she didn't do cool stuff, but she wasn't studying. Oh, no, no. They didn't have to study much. No, I totally agree with you. So they're in Denver. Anyways, Shelby's in Denver. She calls me one day and she goes, modeling just went in the coolest place for lunch.

She goes, it was called same cafe. She said it's an acronym for So All May Eat. And she goes, I'm not exactly how it works. She goes, but you can go in and you can, if you don't have money, so like, you know, it's near a homeless park and she said, you know, people walk in and they can't pay, so they volunteer in the cafe for, you know,

some period of time, she goes, I don't really know how long. And she said, or if you've got money, you can pay. And my first thought is, she'll be the miser. Please tell me you pay for your lunch, she'll be. And she did. That child, if she had, I think she has the same two nickels that she ever made when she was 10 years old. Pretty tight, huh? Yes. Yeah. Anyways, she she said so really cool place. And she said, they had like two pizzas and two salads and two sandwiches. And that was it. But it was all real good and healthy. And I am married to a cardiologist. And we do try to eat healthy most of the time. And she knew that would kind of get me.

And she goes, and mom, she goes, I think you and dad need to open one. And I'm sitting there thinking, oh, oh, oh, no. Along with the thousand children in your life, and the bus you're driving around to Walmart, getting looked at, we're here. Let's start a restaurant. Exactly. Sure. Why not?

So she said, I think you need to start running. I was like, that was my thought exactly. Was I was like, yeah, show me that's exactly what we need to do because, you know, we don't have enough to do. We got so much free time. I've got so much free time. I'd love to do that. But that's exactly what we need to do because, you know, we don't have enough to do. We got so much free time. I've got so much free time, I'd love to do that, but that's not, but I start looking, I looked them up online and start thinking about it

and just start kind of thinking, you know, I really do love to cook, in which I do love to cook, and can't be that much harder than... And you've already been introduced to the needy community in Jackson through the stuff you're involved in. So let's start awareness on your brain and heart. It did. It did. And then I found out that these nonprofit donation based cafes, I found out

that they were nonprofit. Right. And I was like, we can do that. I mean, we've got lots of kids that got to go to college. So I can't just throw all their college money away. But we can do this. I can raise money for a non-profit. So went to, well, no, actually when I finally started kind of talking more about it to my husband, he was like, I think it sounds like a great idea. Let's find out more about it while I called the head

of the first, I don't even know what you'd call her, but she's received several awards. She actually, I think for the same girl. Well, actually not for same cafe. She owned the first nonprofit donation base cafe that was out in maybe Utah. I don't know. One more cafe. Yeah, somewhere, you know, somewhere out there. And she had, she had sat down the cafe because she had started going and helping other people

open nonprofit cafes. And one of the first ones that she helped was this same cafe in Denver. So they actually are one of the oldest in the United States, and I think let's see. I think they probably have been in operation for about 16 or 17 years now, because I think they were about eight or nine years old when we opened nine years ago. Anyways, they were having this one world. Everybody eats foundation weekend over Martin Luther King weekend that year and I called this woman Denise Seretta to get some information about the cafes and how they actually how to start them and they were in the middle of that weekend and I thought that's really weird.

So in a way she gets back to me kind of explains a little bit, she puts me in touch with the woman from same cafe and I just thought, we can do this. So I started kind of talking to some people in the community and there was one woman in the community that I didn't really even know that well, but she was relentless and I promise I think I would have dropped the ball if she hadn't called me about every three weeks going, have you found a place? It's spoke to her. Yeah, it's spoke to her too. So anyways, about nine months later, there we were, opening right before Thanksgiving.

So tell me about the first day you opened up. First time. First of all, you had to be nervous. You had to be wondering the back of your mind. Listen, Denver has two and a half, three, four, five million people to draw from. So I can see how in the larger cities this would go. Oh, yeah. But we're talking about a really small municipality here.

And you had to have been wondering, are people really going to show up meat here? I really did. I wonder if people were going to show up and eat. And really did wonder if people were going to show up and eat. And I also wonder are we going to get into taking advantage of? Oh, I swear to you that question was coming next. My question I would think one are people going to hear two are we going to take advantage of in three again and a large urban area. you have people who are more open and used to being around

more homeless and disadvantaged and probably feel more pulled toward going and eating and paying more money. But again, in a smaller urban municipality, I would think just the education of that need would be less. Am I, am I off? No, I don't think you're off at all. And I think in Jackson around that time, there was also this thought that I looked at several different areas of Jackson to put the cafe. One was, I thought, well, we'll have to be a destination,

you know, that people will be willing to drive to, or we need to be in downtown Jackson, or I need to be on a bus sign, and something just kept taking me back to downtown Jackson. And if you know anything about downtown Jackson, it is being slowly rebuilt, and it's a pretty cool place. And some money had just been invested or was being invested in the Jackson walk. And we have a, you know, whole

new apartment complex and shopping and, you know, restaurants and what was it like that nine years ago? It was, it was getting started. It was, yes, it was starting. But people were going down there to eat. And not really, not really at was starting. But people were going down there to eat. And not really, not really at that point. So you're gonna open a brush right there. Yeah, all of it. And you're gonna ask people who don't understand the homeless to come in and sit down and eat with them.

Yes, exactly. I just, I can't imagine you had to have had some trepidation. Well, let me tell you one of my favorite stories and I definitely won't mention any names. Um, but... Come on with a developer in Jackson and said, hey, I'd like to talk to you. And I talked to his one of the guys that he works with. I said, I'd like to talk to y'all about putting in this restaurant. Great healthy food. We're playing just simple menu, in this restaurant, great healthy food. We're planning just simple menu,

menu will change each day. It'll be something like two soups, two salads, and two sandwiches. We're gonna do as much organic and as much just really great healthy food as we can get our hands on. As much locally sourced and organic. And they were like, yes, let's talk about this.

So I went in to the meeting and I had mentioned volunteers. You hadn't mentioned exactly where they were like, yes, let's talk about this. So I went into the meeting and I had mentioned volunteers. You hadn't mentioned exactly where they were coming from though. Exactly. Exactly. So anyways, I start talking about this and the guy even has his folder open. And he said, well, we could put you. I don't think that one of our storefronts would be large enough,

but you could take two. And he said, I would need a five-year contract. And it would be X number of dollars. And first of all, I was like, five-year contract, I can't do that. And I was so scared. But the point that just, oh, I don't even have words for it, was this folder's open and he's showing me all this and he said, now tell me again,

how this is gonna work with volunteers and I said, well, I said, you know, somebody comes in, needs a meal, doesn't have the money to pay for it and he goes, whoa, he goes like the homeless and I was like, yeah, the homeless, the underserved. And he closes his folder. He closes his folder.

Doesn't even realize he's done it and kind of pushes it across the midway, across the table and says, well, I just can't do it for less than this and I'd have to have a five year contract. And I was just, exactly. words, we don't want you. Exactly. And they were at that point, I'll be very honest, and I know this is a fact.

They were trying to move the homeless out of this corridor... I'm here, you are. ...in Jackson. We'll just sit down and anchor to them. Right, right. So, one day... You're public enemy number one at the end.

I know, I was. And now we... I kind of laugh about it because they come in the eat and I'm kind of like Hey, did you ever think that we would still be here or that we would be here nine years later and doing this well Clearly, and he was like and and he's willing to say nope. I really didn't think you would Thank you, Wood. Turning a naysayer into a believer. Now that's poetic justice if I've ever heard it. Guys that concludes part one of our conversation with Amy Quinshaw, and I hope you'll listen to part two that's now available, as the story of community cafe is just getting started.

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