I have managed a food shelter for 30 years. We feed homeless daily, and have even expanded to giving them living spaces and work opportunities. As such, the vast majority of my "staff" is volunteer. Except for Victor. Victor has been my one employee working the shelter for over 20 years. He has a real heart for the homeless, and is well known and loved in the community by all. He's the most selfless person I've ever met. And unfortunately for health reasons Victor is being forced to "retire". Oh, he'll still be around brightening everyone's day from time to time for sure!
Anyway, we have a ton of connections with local grocery stores who often donate unused food to our shelter. John is the managing partner for HEB in the area, and me and John go way back. So do John and Victor. At any rate, John learned of Victor's retirement and his love of good steak and wanted to help him out. He told me he had about $300 of meat that was going to be thrown out. Now, normally this isn't something they can give us nor can we accept, but John wanted to donate it to a BBQ party for Victor we were going to have that night so we all accepted.
It turned into a busy day so I had to send one of our volunteers, Marcos, to get the meat from HEB. Marcos doesn't speak much English, but I told John he was coming. John made a joke about throwing in some beer for the party on his dime also, but said to send him on the way.
Marcos got back from HEB and was teary eyed and very down. He told me the whole story. He had gone to the butcher who had the meat ready to go for him, including a case of beer (John really is a good guy). He had put it into a basket to carry to his car, and while he was leaving some big guy stepped in front of him and started to talk in a very loud, harsh voice. Marcos is a small dude, probably 140 pounds or so. He said the guy asked if he had paid for the food, and Marcos said something like "Gratis, is free gift" to him. The guy got more agitated and started to get closer, and began to poke Marcos in the chest while demanding to know if Marcos had paid for the food. Marcos was a bit panicked and didn't know what to do.
He said the guy made a few dollar signs and then grabbed the basket out of his hands and stormed past him. Marcos didn't know what to do, as the guy turned around and yelled "Get out of here before I call the cops" and made a threatening gesture towards him. Marcos decided that leaving was the best course of action.
Victor ended up not getting his BBQ party, but he's a great guy and was plenty happy with the pizza ordered. Still, some people can be such jerks.
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