Tenn. Teen Offers to Carry Groceries in Exchange for Food, Receives Outpouring of Support

Chauncy Jones Black, 16, is well on his way to getting the help he needs to build a better life for himself since he approached a man at a Kroger store in Memphis, Tenn., earlier this month, asking to help carry the man's groceries in exchange for food, Fox59 reports.

Matt White told his friends on Facebook about his conversation with Black, and the post has now gone viral:

He had taken the bus at 9:00 at night to get to the “rich people’s Kroger” on Highland as he called it. He approached me while I was shopping for produce asking if he could help me carry my grocery bags to my car in exchange for buying him a pack of glazed donuts. This kid looked like he had been turned down 100 times. He looked ashamed, hungry and broken. In my heart I screamed a loud “yes!”, but to him I just chuckled and said, “yeah dude, we'll get you some donuts”. …

All the while we talked and he told me how he makes straight A's in school and is trying to get a job to help his mom pay rent. This kid was amazing. Chauncy kept calling himself poor, but he told me that one day he was gonna be wealthy and own his own businesses so that he could help other people in his neighborhood and buy them groceries like me. I was in awe. …

As White engaged the young teen in conversation, he learned that Black lived with his mother but they didn't have very much. 

They didn't even have beds or furniture. They were sleeping on pads made out of sleeping bags, they had two lamps and nothing in their fridge. Nothing. His mother was so sweet but very fragile. I couldn't tell what it was, but she had some sort of physical and/ or mental disability that made her shake and made walking difficult.

After his post went viral and he realized the teen was getting a lot of supporters, White created a GoFundMe account to list all the things that would help out Black and his mom. As of Friday at 2 p.m. EDT, White had raised $93,818 of the $90,000 goal he had set.

Read more at Fox59.