Photo by sergio omassi from Pexels
By Mayukh Saha | Truth Theory
When a homeless woman pulled into the parking lot of an East Nashville, Tennessee Kroger grocery store she had no idea that her life was going to change drastically! Pushed around from foster to foster care while growing up, LaShenda Williams told CNN how no one wanted to keep her in the end. She was a part of the system till her senior year. Williams also had a learning disability that made it difficult for her to find and keep jobs so she would live in her car and often find herself worrying about where her next meal would come from.
While staying in her car at the Kroger parking lot, Williams would be a friendly regular customer by day. At night she would move her car to a new spot every day so that the employees of the store would not realize that she was staying in the parking lot.
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When Jackie Vandal, associate store manager, heard that Williams had a goal of working at the store one day she decided to help her get a job at the upcoming job fair. Williams was a candidate and went on to be a new hire with the help of her impressive people skills and Vandal herself who assisted Williams with her application.
HOMELESS WOMAN TURNS KROGER EMPLOYEE
In only a month this homeless woman got her first promotion. She started as a part-time cashier and went ahead to become a full-time checkout associate. In a short time, she was able to afford her own apartment. Her first home!
A certain Kroger customer names V.L. Williams (not related) got to know that his favorite staff member was getting her first place. But she didn’t have any furniture. So he took to social media for help.
V.L.’s post on the East Nashville Facebook group got over 200 responses and everything from furniture to small appliances started pouring in for the homeless woman from Kroger.
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“You don’t know how good this feels. I’ve been through a lot. Thank you… this means the world to me,” an emotional and grateful Williams told her kind helpers.
Williams now considers her co-workers and customers her true family and calls them “her babies”. This former homeless woman went on emotionally about how the Kroger employees had fed her when she was hungry. When she needed a pair of gloves, they provided her with that too. She now considers her coworkers as her own family.
