Restaurant Whose Kindness Went Viral Is Floundering

As Ashley Jiron explains in a post on her Oklahoma restaurant's Facebook page, she's spent the past few weeks mulling over words that she really didn't want to say: "It is with a heavy heart that I have to announce P.B. Jams' permanent closing after the holidays." Jiron, who gained national attention earlier this year by kindly offering to feed an anonymous person who was rummaging through her eatery's dumpster, is financially struggling and was afraid she'll have to shut her business down and stop not only serving her customers, but also her community: Since her generous note to the dumpster diver went viral, she's also set up a #ShareTheNuts campaign that allows people to come into her restaurant and prepay for meals for people in need. Jiron uses any money left over from the campaign at the end of the month to make purchases for other organizations that help the community.

All this while she's been struggling on her own raising two young daughters. "We've had good months and we've had bad months," she writes on Facebook. "We've had electricity and we've had no electricity. We've had a roof and we've lost a roof." But Jiron says she's been inspired to keep fighting for PB Jams because of the outpouring of both financial and emotional support from the public, KFOR reports. "You've given me the motivation I needed to not give up," she says on Facebook, noting that despite her initial reluctance to crowdfund, she's set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for some of her restaurant's expenses so that she can "continue my efforts to help our fellow neighbors in need." She adds on Facebook, "I'll keep fighting for my business until I cannot fight anymore." (A Utah man committed "random acts of pasta" to feed the homeless last winter.)