It was unsolicited and unexpected, describes Rooster & the Till co-owner and chef Ferrell Alvarez.
About a week ago, Benjamin Pomales, a line cook at Alvarez’s Seminole Heights restaurant, launched a GoFundMe page to help his colleague Hassan Lewis attend USF Tampa after one of Lewis’ scholarships fell through. The campaign has raised $600 of its $25,000 goal so far.
Lewis, who recently graduated from high school, worked as a dishwasher at Rooster for around eight to 10 months, dividing his free time between kitchen prep work at the restaurant and volunteering with the Boys & Girls Club. He continues to contribute what he makes at Rooster to his family’s bills.
“He’s the epitome of a fantastic kid,” Alvarez said. “Literally everything you want your son to be.”
Since the other scholarship Lewis landed will only cover USF’s summer semester, the restaurant transferred him to the front of the house as a back waiter. The new position allows Lewis to earn more money, according to Alvarez.
“I personally have $60,000 worth of loan debt [after] attending school,” Pomales wrote on the campaign's page , “and would love to help put someone through school without a number looming over their head.”
Of Polames’ efforts, Alvarez said: “[Rooster is] a very, very tight-knit, family-oriented environment… Ben is the catalyst for this.”
This article appears in Jun 18-24, 2015.