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La La Land Kind Cafe wants to teach everyone to be kind

The café is helping foster kids find jobs and teaching other companies how to hire them

Holly Petre, Assistant Digital Editor

August 17, 2021

 

Much like Harry Styles sings about in his song "Treat People With Kindness," restaurant operator Francois Reihani wants everyone to be treated with kindness. That’s the mission behind his Dallas-based café chain, La La Land Kind Cafe, which specifically hires youth who have aged out of the foster care system.

Reihani was saddened by foster kids’ lack of preparedness for the jobs market in America, and employers’ lack of ways to hire them — so he decided to create opportunities for both. His non-profit, We are One, has long worked with kids who aged out of foster care find jobs.

La La Land Kind Cafe makes a point to treat people — from store-level employees to customers — with kindness, something many foster youth are lacking in their upbringing. Reihani has found that the mission has resonated with customers and employees alike – so much so that one of the company’s kindness videos on TikTok went viral with 24 million views

Videos posted to the three-unit restaurant’s account now regularly receive almost one million views, all because people want some random kindness in the world.

Watch Reihani discuss his strategy for treating employees and customers with kindness –­ a strategy he’s teaching to big brands like Taco Bell and Walmart now – and what he has planned

About the Author

Holly Petre

Assistant Digital Editor

Holly Petre is a digital editor for Nation’s Restaurant News as well as the host of NRN’s podcast, Extra Serving, and producer for Informa Restaurant and Food Group’s other three podcasts, One On One by Food Management, Off the Shelf with SN and In the Kitchen with Bret Thorn. Holly holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a concentration in Sculpture, fibers and Material Studies and Ceramics from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. A native New Yorker, Holly enjoys her place on staff as the resident pop-culture expert and millennial with a sassy attitude and great sense of style.

Holly Petre’s work on Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality often covers marketing and trends, either aimed-at or examined-through the millennial mindset. Holly is responsible for introducing TikTok and Twitch to NRN and RH readers as well as explaining terms like “Karen” to staff and readers alike. She also spends her time on staff trying not to make every headline a pun.

Holly Petre hasn’t spoken at any events or on panels, but she is readily available with a killer shoe wardrobe and several witty quips.

 

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