Parents With 11 Kids Start Coffee Shop Employing Foster Kids
We love a feel good story around here!
With 11 kids of their own, you might think Ryan and Sara Senters have their hands too full to help anyone else, but they don’t feel that way. According to People, the Arizona couple, who adopted nine of their kids and have been foster parents for 15 years, have launched their own social services agency to help foster kids and they opened Hānai, a coffee shop and restaurant, to provide them with job training.
What does Hanai Mean?
Hānai means “informal adoption” or chosen family in Hawaiian, and that’s exactly what the Senters hope to provide for foster youth. They were inspired to open it after Ryan noticed some of the older foster kids they were working with were struggling with mental health issues, including one of their sons.
The coffee shop not only gives jobs to these kids, they mentor them as they age out of the foster care system and a portion of the proceeds from Hānai goes to helping foster kids who are “looking for their forever homes.” “We do work programs with them, learn social skills, and how to make eye contact and all the basics,” Ryan explains. “Then help support them to be able to hold a job and do a good job.”
