Memphis, Tennessee teenager Chauncy Jones Black caught the 9 p.m. bus to the “rich people’s Kroger’s” to see if he would have any luck carrying groceries in exchange for food. One of the customers the 16-year-old asked was 30-year-old Matt White, who, rather than give him the box of donuts Black was after, walked him into the store and bought him frozen vegetables, pizzas, peanut butter, and tooth brushes for Black to take home to his disabled mother.
In a Facebook post, White wrote, “This kid looked like he had been turned down 100 times. He looked ashamed, hungry and broken. “He had no phone, a bus pass, and he was depending on the graces of a stranger to feed him within the hour before the bus left.”
White gave Black a ride home, and was shocked to see he and his mother had no furniture, an empty refrigerator and were sleeping on nothing but a pallet on the floor.
After White’s Facebook post went viral, he decided to set up a GoFundMe page, which has since amassed over $248,000 for the Black family, just $2,000 shy of the $250,000 goal.
According to the GoFundMe page, Black is a straight A student who is doing his best to make it in a world with no money and limited resources. He wants to work and help his mother financially. He wants to become a successful business owner and offer jobs and opportunities to others in his community. What so many can take for granted, he wants. He wants food, a bed and work, but above all, he wants a chance.
With the outpouring of support, he just may have found that chance.
