Homeless man walks into a café and begs for food – Owner gives him a job instead

We’ve all heard the expression, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” This is the story of one woman who took that expression to heart in an inspiring and lasting way.

Cesia “Abi” Baires is no stranger to hard work and struggle. At just 25-years-old, she opened her own restaurant in South Minneapolis that she was practically running by herself.

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Source: CBS Local Screenshot

So when a homeless man came in asking for money, she gave him a response that most people might find offensive.

“Why don’t you work?” she asked the man. “Nothing is given to me for free, nothing in this world is free.”

While her approach to the situation might seem harsh, it comes from a really good place. Baires knows the area her restaurant is in well. She knows that there is a lot of crime and drug activity and so when people come into her business asking her for money, she offers them food instead. Her heart is in the right place as she tries to supply these people with what it is they actually need.

On the day that a homeless man named Marcus came into her restaurant, she got a moving response that she wasn’t expecting.

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Source: ABC News Screenshot

Marcus admitted that he had made mistakes in his past, but that those mistakes were keeping him from finding employment.

“He told me about his situation. He said he got felonies, and nobody wants to hire him. Especially around this area if you look homeless they won’t even let you in,” said Baires. “To me that’s unacceptable.”

Seeing that she was shorthanded that day, Baires offered Marcus the opportunity to work that he’d been looking for. He was smiling and grateful when he accepted the offer to work in the kitchen as a dishwasher. Since then, he’s been consistently showing up for work.

Marcus is now paying it forward as well. Baires says that she often sees him saving half of the meals that he gets at a discount from the restaurant so that he can bring it to other people that he knows who are in need of food. It’s such a positive example of what goes around comes around.

In addition to giving Marcus his job, Baires has also set up a page to try to fundraise for a place for him to live. With such a big heart, she felt that she needed to help this man in any way that she could. While she admits that she doesn’t know what it was that drew her to sympathize with Marcus’ situation, she just knows that she couldn’t go on without trying to help.

Baires and Marcus’ story is a true example of the impact you can make in someone’s life just by giving them a hand.

“Being out on the streets is not life,” she said. “If you have life and you can give that to someone else why not do it.”

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