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by Jessica Wilson
Coffee places seem to be on every corner these days, but one local shop in west St. Louis county is doing more than handing out the cappuccinos and lattes. More Than Coffee, near the intersection of Manchester and Highway 141, is busy helping others—and in the process is getting a little help themselves. The small coffee shop was started in April 2006 by Sam Malek. Sam was born in Egypt, two-months premature and with cerebral palsy. He was found in a trash can as a baby and was brought to the United States where he underwent treatment and several surgeries. He eventually learned how to walk—despite the fact that his doctors said he wouldn’t even live. Malek says that’s why he started the coffee shop—“God gives you the gift of life—you don’t turn your back on it.” More Than Coffee’s original mission was to employ disabled workers, but the original shop made that hard to do. Thanks to a complete rebuild from ABC’s hit television show, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Malek can now hire people of all abilities. Malek says getting the new shop wasn’t what he wanted, and in fact he turned down the offer when the show’s producers first came to him. Now Malek says, “It has been a good experience getting the new place because, by God’s grace, I can now help more people.” The new shop isn’t much bigger than the original, but it is now more handicap accessible. Malek is able to hire people in wheelchairs to help out in the shop. According to Malek, the great thing about being able to hire the disabled is that it gives them the confidence to eventually move on to new jobs. He says it’s great to see them believe in themselves enough that they can learn to help themselves. More Than Coffee does more than help those that work there. A portion of all of the sales go to local charities that help disabled children. The money raised from the shop helps children do everything from going to their school prom to going horseback riding for the first time. Every month, the shop picks a different charity to help. Malek, though, says that he is not the one who is doing the helping—it’s his customers. Malek says his customers do more than buy coffee to help support the charities—many of them also help him provide needy families with everything from clothes to new computers, and that what Malek does is “connect the dots in the community so that people can get the help they need.&rdquo Malek’s customers seem to disagree about who’s doing the helping. Regular customer Brooke Graham says, “I choose More Than Coffee because of the quality of the service, quality of product and, most importantly, the quality of the cause that Sam promotes.” Customer Chuck Hembree agrees. He says that in addition to Malek being a “stickler about his coffee,” Sam is “doing a good job here raising money to help those less fortunate.” Malek is a very humble man, refusing to take credit for much of what he does. He’s all about helping others—so much so that when the Extreme Makeover team was in town looking for volunteers, Malek went to see how he could help, believing the show was looking for help for the rebuild of the Martirez family home in Shrewsbury. Malek says he’s grateful for everything that everyone has done for him so that he can help others. He has a group of volunteers that come in to help because they believe in what he does. And, he says the rebuild has been a great thing, but he admits he’s a little uncomfortable with all the attention.
More Than Coffee
14240 Manchester Rd.
Ballwin, MO 63011
(636) 591-3333
www.morethancoffee.net
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