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Tony-In November 2008, I was driven to Southern California by my brother, and dropped off with a change of clothes and a backpack. To start my life over again after a life long battle with Drug & Alcohol Addiction that was capped off of what I call 18 months of Hell.\xa0 I lost a business, multiple homes and ton of money in a business deal with my sister and others.\xa0 Eventually living on the streets and in the dessert for 8 months.\xa0 Of course, at the time I would tell you it was all \u201ctheir\u201d fault.\xa0 But, today I know I had a lot of responsibility in those relationships and outcomes.\xa0 I entered a Sober Living and began my life of Recovery.\xa0 Early on I wanted to get a job and realized that even with my 25 years of restaurant experience I was NOW Unemployable.\xa0 My record and current circumstances left me HOPELESS.\xa0 Then during my early recovery, I started seeking a relationship with a loving God, not the one I had as a child (damning) God put into my life a Christian woman that had multiple businesses that allowed me to work with her in several of them.\xa0 At the same time, she was reading the Bible and speaking into my life in a way that was foreign to me.\xa0 During one of those days at work we were doing a Wedding Shower for her now Daughter in Law and that is when I met Ann (my wife).\xa0 Shortly thereafter while I was riding a train up to Central California to do a Wedding for a family friend, I was praying to God that I just met, what do you want me to do with my life?\xa0 He said, start writing.\xa0 On that paper had our business name, \u201cHope Caf\xe9 & Catering\u201d and our Mission: \u201cTo reach the outcast, outsourced and overlooked.\xa0 To teach them a trade, how to feed themselves, their family and the community.\u201d\xa0 I looked down and said, clearly this is from God.\xa0 As I had no desire to get back into the restaurant business especially having employees.\xa0 I got baptized and in October 2009 asked Ann to marry me.\xa0 Much to my surprise she said yes! August 2012, we purchase 50% of an existing catering company as we were waiting on God to show us where and how this \u201cHope Caf\xe9 & Catering\u201d was going to happen.\xa0 It was clear a short time later that God had a plan and it looked nothing like I imagined.\xa0 We took on our legal dba.\xa0 Hope Caf\xe9 & Catering and today operate out of our 6,000 sq. ft Commercial Kitchen centrally located in Pasadena serving all of Southern California.\xa0 Extending that HOPE I was looking for early on to those that feel HOPELESS. out of rehab, having just lost my business and all my money, I was without hope. I am intentional about using the business God has given us to employ people that many business owners may not choose such as the disenfranchised, recovering persons, veterans, people with mental and physical disabilities.\xa0HOPE Caf\xe9 has provided food for the Grammys, the Emmy\u2019s, and the X-Games as well as Indy Car and NASCAR events.\xa0 Our corporate clients are in the hundred\u2019s including:\xa0 Kaiser Permanente, The City of Pasadena, Southern California Edison, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Warner Brothers, and The Rose Bowl.\xa0 My family lives in the east San Gabriel Valley.\xa0
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Ann-I was raised in a conservative Christian home, married young and had two beautiful Children.\xa0 After 19+ years of marriage, my husband had an extramarital affair, And I found myself in the middle of a messy divorce. This was a painful and agonizing experience, as we were prominent members in Our church and community.\xa0 My world came crashing down. I didn\u2019t have time to Wallow in self-pity. I knew that I had to find a way support myself and my two children, Because my e