- I'm here with Ed Asner and Whitney Cummings.
(audience applauds) - Yay!
- Yeah, cheer for yourself, I like it.
All right, so y'all must have been to Texas, right?
You've been to Texas, Ed? - Yes.
- Oh yeah.
- So while Texas is known for so many awesome things,
but I wanna tell you about a place you might not have heard
of quite yet.
It's a brightly colored popular coffee shop
called La La Land Kind Cafe.
Sure, they serve tasty cappuccinos,
but their main goal is to create jobs
and opportunities for kids aging out
of the foster care system.
Here's a peek behind the scenes.
(air whooshing)
(happy music)
- I think the cafe's popular on Instagram and social media
because it's got cool colors,
some cool sayings here and there,
retro truck parked in front or our all yellow cup.
It's a really nice atmosphere where they feel some sort
of kindness coming when they walk through the doors
and obviously some pretty cool coffee.
We hire foster youth who are aging out of the system.
So when they turn 18,
we want to present the place that not only provides the love
and care for them,
but a job that can actually turn into a possible career.
Even when they leave and chase their dreams
we wanna be here for them forever.
They're really always a part of the La La Land family.
And we're trying to prove that kindness should
be the standard in business.
We should all be doing this.
We should all be helping our society.
And so we prove a new business model where we can be kind
and be a business that runs in today's society.
(audience applauds)
- All right.
Well, we actually have the owner
of La La Land Kind Cafe dialing in right now.
He's what I like to call a rad human y'all.
(audience applauds) (upbeat music)
All right, everybody let's say hi to Francois Reihani.
How you doing?
- Francois.
- I like how you say it, Francois.
(speaking in a foreign language)
(laughs)
- Oh yeah, that was very nice.
So Francois, how did you become so passionate
about helping foster kids?
- I grew up in Mexico where there isn't a real foster care
system and when I moved here, when I was 12,
I never knew there was an actual problem here.
So I went about my life.
I started actually doing restaurants
when I was really young.
And while I was doing those restaurants,
I ended up at a kind of seminar
or a workshop about foster youth who are aging
out of the system.
And that was the first time I'd ever heard
anything about it.
And basically, I, you know, I heard three stories.
Each story was worse than the first and second one.
And each one really sounded like a horror movie to me.
And so at the end of those three stories, you know,
you think about an 18 year old kid who was went through
their entire life alone, maybe lived in 13,
15 different homes without any real love or care.
And then when they turn 18,
we basically leave them on the street.
So for me, that was a huge shock.
And the more that I dove into looking into what's happening
the worse and the deeper, the dark hole got.
- So Francois, what sparked the idea of a coffee shop?
- Yeah, so for us, we first wanted to. create, you know,
the question was what's the perfect business model
for us to be able to hire foster youth who are aging
out of the system?
And we chose coffee mainly because number one,
it's a really happy environment.
And number two, it's a growing career path, right?
Being a barista is not only really cool
and youth want to achieve that.
But it's also something that you can grow in it
and work on as a career.
- Yeah.
So, I mean, have you guys ever had the opportunity
to mentor a young person?
- Every good teacher is undoubtedly is usually older
than you.
And he, I call that a mentor.
And especially if they single you out
and concentrate on you, that's mentoring, that's all,
all it takes.
And every good director,
he's teaching you as he's directing you.
So I've benefited from a lot of mentors in my life.
And I only hope that I could someday repay them.
- Oh yeah, I bet you have.
I think people don't always know
that you're someone's mentor.
They just, there are always eyes on you.
- Yeah.
- I do it a lot with female comedians, you know,
because I really just was looking essentially for a mom when
I got into comedy,
but there were so many comedians that were really just kind
of about to break before the pandemic.
And then the touring business just kind of went away.
People that relied on those checks every weekend,
on those shows.
So I've had a lot of female comedians staying at my house.
But yeah, now more than ever,
we really just gotta stick together and lift each other up
however we can.
- Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
Well, you say that the cafe represents a bigger message.
So what is the bigger message with your cafe?
- Yeah, you know,
we love all the admiration and love we get
and we think it's awesome.
But at the same time we think that one of the biggest
problems is that people see what we're doing as amazing.
And that's because I think the standard is very
low right now, right.
So our goal in the next five or 10 years is to make giving
back and caring about our community normal, right?
Like, since when have we gotten to a point
that hiring foster youth who need our help,
they're our responsibility, since when has
that become outstanding, right?
So hopefully as we're creating a new business model where
we're kind of expected to give back as more businesses
open it and copy us or replicate what we're doing and help
some sort of a cause or way that in five or 10 years from
now, it starts to become, you know, the norm.
- Yeah. I mean, we've definitely normalized other things.
Why don't we normalize some positivity?
- Yeah.
- I agree with you.
It's such a great message.
This coffee shop not only provides jobs for kids
who've aged out of the foster system.
It gives them self confidence and the sense of family.
We have two have the employees on the line right now,
please say hello to Jay and Sierra.
How y'all doing?
(audience applauds)
- Good.
- Yes, well, so Jay and Sierra so tell us
about growing up in foster care.
And let's start with you, Jay.
- All right, I was in foster care.
I got placed in foster care when I was five.
I was taken from my mom.
And that was for about two years.
And I spent like the last 10 years bouncing
from home to home.
You know, the foster moms,
they tried to connect with me, but like,
it was really hard for me to get welcoming and hope.
And like, I had a really hard time trusting them so
that didn't work out so much, and then now I'm 19
and I aged out.
So yeah.
- Yeah, Sierra, what about you?
- Well, the first 12 years of my life,
I spent shuffling between my grandparents and neighbors.
It was really unstable and everybody was in
and out of prison.
I had entered the foster care system whenever I was 15.
And I was with my first foster family.
And eventually I just ended up running away
and living on my own
and doing jobs underneath the table just to survive.
- Good gosh, I mean,
that's very hard for a mama to sit here and listen to that.
I can't imagine having to live it.
You're little warriors.
I mean, what drew you into working at the cafe?
How did you hear about it?
Why did you wanna join this family?
- So first I had a friend who worked there
and she was telling me, you know, "Come out and see it."
And at the moment I didn't have a job.
I was like homeless.
So I was just like, you know what, I'll give it a try.
From the moment that I walked in there,
I noticed that they were promoting kindness
and they were just this big family atmosphere.
And it was very welcoming and I knew that they cared.
And honestly it felt like my prayers have been answered.
- Oh, wow.
So Jay, what drew you in?
- Actually, a couple of people mentioned it to me.
And so I was like, you know what, I'll go and check it out.
And I went in.
I talk, I was like, "Hey, are you guys hiring?
And then they were like, "Yeah."
And then I met Francoise and he was just like, so outgoing,
so bubbly, so kind.
And I was like, "You know what?
"I don't even know if this is the dream or whatever.
(laughs)
"But like I gotta work here."
And then he turns around and he's like,
"You're hired."
I'm like, "Goal!"
(laughs) (hands clapping)
- That's amazing.
Oh my gosh.
So how has working there impacted each of you?
Like, I mean, just this has to,
it had to have changed your life, right?
Sierra I'll start with you.
- Oh, well first they just started, you know,
they've helped me to develop skills, personal skills,
coping skills, interaction skills in general,
that nobody really spent time doing that with me.
And then also I grew a lot in the company
and after mastering all of the positions,
I had gotten a promotion to being a shift lead
and now my next promotion is being a corporate trainer.
- Wow, you better get it.
Climbing that ladder, okay.
(audience applauds)
That's awesome.
Well, Jay, how about you?
- This company just impacted me.
It's like I've never felt so belonged somewhere.
They just taught me that luck is much better as working as a
team than alone by yourself.
They're very welcoming.
Just been homey for me.
- I mean, it's you say it isn't like,
you keep using the word just,
but that's a magical thing for a lot of people around the
world that did not grow up in a family environment
or what that should have been and felt like.
So I can't imagine that shift in your heart and your soul,
you know, and that potential is there that,
that you are deserving.
You start seeing, like, I deserve this.
Like and I can be this for someone.
It's a really beautiful thing.
And I think, and you know,
we've all been sitting here talking
about it in such a often dark time.
And there's a lot of daunting things and you know,
happening in our world and around us,
especially this nation,
it's really beautiful to see such light.
- And it makes me think if they're the future
of our country,
we're gonna be okay.
- We're gonna be- - We're gonna be fine.
- Yes.
- We are gonna be just fine.
(audience applauds)
- So, I mean, Jay and Sierra,
is there something you'd like to say to Francoise?
'Cause I wish I could hug him.
Like he's like such a beautiful soul
to start this whole thing.
Like, is there anything y'all want to say?
Sierra you wanna start?
- Honestly, just thank you so much for putting your heart
into the, ah I'm sorry, (sighs)
into the foster youth who have nobody
and just giving it your all and making us your family
and you are really making a difference.
And thank you for that.
(audience applauds)
- I love Sierra.
And I'll say that Sierra is really one of the most amazing
and bright and happy and optimistic human beings I've ever
met in my entire life.
She literally makes me better.
She makes our whole company better.
And these two girls really resemble anything that we would
ever want out of La La Land as a company
and a mission, right?
- Yeah, well, Jay, you wanna say something?
- Yeah, I can see, like I've always said,
it's not really words that I can put into it of how much
I wanna thank you Francois.
I try to do my best to let my actions show you
that you mean so much to me.
You've brought hope back into my life.
You bought purpose back into my life.
And I now kinda know like, okay,
this is what I want in life.
And this is where I'm going for.
And if it wasn't for you,
I don't think I would be here.
And like saying thank you, to me, is an understatement.
And so I just really hope that I can show you how much
you've impacted me and helped me come to where I am now.
(audience applauds) - Yes, I love that.
- I love you guys.
You guys have done it on your own.
It wasn't me.
You guys have obviously worked your way up and made it
through a horrible system.
And all we did was give you some love
and you guys ran with it.
So you should be really proud of yourselves.
- You should be proud of yourself taking that opportunity.
Some people are given opportunity and they squander,
like they don't use it and you did.
That's the coolest thing about just,
looking at that hurdle and jumping right on over it.
So thank you all so much for being with us.
It was so inspiring and you're bringing so much hope to us.