Cafe Serves Up Kindness With Its Coffee
Sam Malek's coffeeshop gives back to the community and helps people with disabilities.
Sam Malek is using his café, More Than Coffee, to help make a difference in the lives of people in his Ballwin, Missouri community.
The coffeeshop employs workers with a range of disabilities, including Down's syndrome, autism, deafness and traumatic brain injuries, among others.
Supporting people with disabilities is a cause close to the owner's heart. Malek was born with cerebral palsy in Egypt in 1963, and he moved to the U.S. with his father five years later.
"When you deal with people who have a disability, it's all about adapting. The whole concept is to make it as independent as humanly possible—to give them a sense of self-esteem, self-worth," Malek told St. Louis magazine.
Malek also donates a portion of More Than Coffee's profits to various charities, including Shriners Children's Hospital, where he received the bulk of his early care.
He told KTVI-TV that Shriners Hospitals saved his life and he is determined to pay the kindness forward by giving back to the local community.
Sarah Beldo is a journalist in San Francisco
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