Homeless Chef Surprised With Food Truck: ‘Dream Come True’

A former chef has been living in a van for the past 18 months after losing his job during the pandemic. His dream was to have his own food truck, and a viral TikTok helped that dream come true.

The Dream Machine Foundation and its team are traveling the country to help as many people as they can. The organization is a nonprofit with a mission to make dreams come true for individuals all over the world — the people the organization serves are those who lack finances, resources or support to achieve their dreams.

The group visited Colorado Springs and ran into Tony Rojas, a homeless chef who’s dream is owning a food truck. “We just fell in love with him and he started crying, but we looked into his eyes and this man, there’s something special here about this man,” said Charlie Rocket, who runs the foundation.

The interaction was shared on TikTok, and the video received over 35 million views in 24 hours. In the video, Rojas can be heard saying, “I just wanted to cook food for people. I just don’t want to give up.”

Rojas lost his job during the pandemic and has been living in a van with his wife for the past 18 months. The foundation also paid for a haircut and new clothing.

To help Rojas achieve his dream, the foundation organized a fundraiser so that people could try some of his food. Thousands of dollars in donations poured in, and the foundation surprised Rojas with a $40,000 food truck. “It’s surreal. It’s like a baseball player going from triple A to the majors. You’re in the big show now and it’s time to perform and watch all these smiles who are waiting,” said Rojas.

Rocket said that Rojas never stopped chasing his dream despite his situation. “Tony is so special, even though he’s homeless we can’t judge people based upon where they’re at in life because he was knocked down,” he said.

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Image source: Washington News Day