Belli's

When I was packing up to move from Chicago I found this letter that I saved from Belli’s first summer. We were about 9 months in and business was terrible, I was struggling left and right to pay rent & I was planning for the inevitable closure at the end of the year, if we even made it that far.

A friend recommended this city program that he thought would help since we were understaffed. A few weeks later, 10 teens from back of the yards and englewood were sent to work at belli’s. I ordered T-shirts & after the first day of meeting them I was putting together a whole program for the next 8 weeks, determined to end business achieving something. I wasn’t going to just have them sit around for 8 weeks & not learn anything.

At the end of the program, one of the interns wrote me this letter & I’ve kept it for ten years as a reminder. (LaTisha if you’re reading this, thank you!) I was feeling hopeless in the beginning trying to make ends meet but my perspective shifted after that summer. I wanted to make an impact & participating in this program reminded me of belli’s health & community mission.

You don’t need to own a business to make an impact though. Every day we can choose to be kind, compassionate, offer grace, & work to be better humans.

It was the first of five summers that Belli’s participated in the city program, and I could write a whole book just about that. But today, just a small snippet for flashback Friday!

Peace, love & juice! 💚

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