Brandon Stanton – an American photographer and the founder of the Humans of New York [HONY] social media page – has rallied the online community together to raise over $1 million in donations for Cristy’s Kitchen, a small cafe located in Georgia, USA.
Stanton shared the cafe owners story on his Humans of New York page – which has 17 million followers on Facebook, 11 million followers on Instagram, and 884K followers on Twitter. The 12- part story shared the family’s tough journey from their humble beginnings in Peru to the opening of their cafe Cristy’s Kitchen in the USA: it also revealed the family’s struggle with unpaid medical and house bills due to Covid-19 – after they had invested all of their earnings into the cafe.
Stanton created a GoFundMe page for the family after his audience begged him to help the owners. Within three days, the GoFundMe page reached its target $1 million and is currently still open for any future donations.
Stanton thanked his fans via Instagram for coming together to support the founders of Cristy’s Kitchen – Cristy and Sebastian. Staton – who was with the couple the night that the HONY posts and GoFundMe page went live – said that Cristy and Sebastian felt the “stress, sacrifice, and worry slowly evaporate into the air” after seeing the outpour of support.
Cristy and Sebastian later thanked the HONY community for their support in a heartfelt Instagram post:
“We have no words that can express what we feel at this moment. Brandon and Erin are angels in our lives. We do not have enough words to thank each and every one of you, for your messages, for your donations, for your love. you have changed our life, you have given our daughters a better future.We are so blessed to be here, and to have the opportunity for a new life. God has given us a mission through the kitchen and we take it with an open heart.We have to apologize in advance to all who come, but we have had (and continue to have) an overly emotional day and I have not been able to produce enough food for you. But, here we are in the bakery thanks to you and for you.Thank you, thank you, thank you for so many signs of love, for so many messages and for so many calls. We love you so much”.
Stanton created the HONY page in 2011 to highlight real New Yorkers and their stories. These authentic narratives amassed a huge following base dedicated to extending support towards those in need. Stanton eventually went on to travel internationally across countries such as Pakistan, Iraq, India and Vietnam to cover a diverse range of stories and cultures across the world. Since then, the page has featured renowned personalities such as Barack Obama, Tanqueray (Stephanie Johnson), Selena Gomez and Serena Williams. The popularity of his narratives on social media led him to become a published author, with Stanton eventually landing on Time’s ‘30 Under 30 People Changing The World’ list.
The HONY community is a strong example of how online communities are restoring faith in humanity and how the stories of common people can enable millions into action. The support of Cristy’s Cafe – in particular – demonstrates the power of social media and how an influencer with a huge audience can make a life-changing difference in someone’s life.