‘Giving up is never an option.’ After years of unemployment, Macon man finds stability as barista

Antonio Mitchell was without work for four years. He was going to school, but then his grandmother was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

He stayed home to take care of her while his mother went to work, and his sister continued her education.

After his grandmother passed away last year, he needed a job.

Mitchell, 26, said he went to Daybreak, a Project of Depaul USA, to see what type of stability it could offer him. Daybreak provides resources to people who are homeless, living with someone else or living in substandard housing. He decided to volunteer.

“I really never would’ve thought I could of got a job through volunteering at Daybreak,” Mitchell said.

The Macon native said he started working at Z Beans coffee shop a month ago when founder Shane Buerster hired him.

Buerster said he wanted to create opportunities in Macon similar to the way Z Beans is creating opportunities for farmers in Ecuador by purchasing their coffee beans.

“It’s kind of natural to create opportunities for the hard-working farmers in Ecuador just because we understand the discrepancy or the difference between the life that we’re able to live and the life that they live, but here in the States it was a little more difficult for us to find,” Buerster said.

Buerster said he approached Sister Theresa Sullivan, the director of Daybreak, about partnering.

Sullivan said she liked that Buerster wanted to mentor someone from Daybreak because she believes that plays an important role in a person keeping a job.

“We all need a circle of people that kind of, you know, keep us motivated within the challenges of everyday life, and that’s why I was really excited about what Shane was offering,” Sullivan said. “He was offering not only a job but a mentorship and a pathway to full-time employment.”

Sullivan said when Buerster asked her about employing someone, she immediately thought of Mitchell because of his volunteer work.

“He was really showing initiative, and I could see the potential he had,” she said.

Sullivan said she would be happy to identify potential employees to other businesses who would like to start a mentorship program.

Buerster said he might have “beginner’s luck” with the first person he’s hired from Daybreak because Mitchell has been doing a great job at Z Beans.

Although Mitchell doesn’t want to be a barista his whole life, the job will give him important skills to reach his goals, Buerster said.

“It’s going to create personal skills. They’re going to meet a lot of people, and maybe they’ll shake a hand one day that’ll lead them to the job that they ultimately, truly want to do,” Buerster said.

Mitchell said he plans to go back to school at Central Georgia Technical College in January to get a degree in criminal justice. He wants to be a crime scene investigator.

He said he loves his new job and his coworkers, and he appreciates his bosses.

“They be hard on me because they care, because they want me to succeed in life,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell said he wants to be financially stable before he moves out of his mother’s house.

He said his family and his girlfriend are the main people who pushed him to get a job, and although people told him he couldn’t do it, he said he used that as motivation.

“I used to struggle. I used to be like, ‘Man I can’t do this,’ ” Mitchell said. “Giving up is never an option.”

This story was originally published October 26, 2018 at 11:09 AM.