I stumbled upon a pure act of kindness this week and I could not help but say at least the world isn’t entirely a horrible place filled with horrible people there are still a few kind people out there. This American woman, Ashley Jiron who owns a restaurant “P.B. Jams”, noticed a homeless person digging through the rubbish outside the shop for their next meal.
She decided to try and get in contact with them and immediately went to her computer and typed this huge sign. She taped this sign to her diner window appealing to the person to come forward, so that she could give them a proper meal – free of charge. The notice read: ‘To the person going through our trash for their next meal, you’re a human being and worth more than a meal from a dumpster.
‘Please come in during operating hours for a classic Pb&J (peanut butter and jam sandwich), fresh veggies, and a cup of water at no charge. No questions asked.’ How incredibly beautiful is that? A customer, Greg King noticed the message and posted a picture of it on his Instagram page with the hashtag #thatswhatlovelookslike – within a couple of days it had been shared thousands of times on social media.
Ashley is now being applauded worldwide for an act of compassion that will melt your heart. Ashley told news channels reporting on her act that she hadn’t expected it to receive such a huge response and was just trying to do the right thing. She said: “Last week, I had noticed some bags, when I had taken out the trash, were torn open and some of the food was taken out. “That really hurt me that someone had to do that – I will not take down that sign until they come in.”
I can safely say we have all been in that position where we needed someone’s help and we just wanted that someone to extend a helping hand. So if I could be that person to help someone else I will definitely do so. After being impressed by the amount of people who got in touch to express their support, Ashley launched a pay-it-forward scheme at her diner, where customers can pre- pay meals for people in need.
For every donation made, a ‘sticky nut’ is placed on the wall at the diner. Those who need to can go take a tag of the wall and use it to pay for their meal. All remaining tags, which haven’t been used by the end of the month go towards purchasing food for local homeless shelters. Ashley’s gesture of kindness has now started to crowd feed a number of campaigns, she has also launched a GoFundMe page for people who can’t reach the diner but also want to be part of the project.
Ashley did the right thing, but never did she think that within a month she would have enough contributions to feed more than 600 people. This trending act was rooted in her own personal hard times. I am just glad that Ashely’s gesture of kindness has now started to crowd feed a number of campaigns I hope that many more people out there understand that humans are worth more than the hardships they go through in life and all it takes is a simple act of kindness. No act of kindness no matter how small is ever wasted.
