Real Hamburger helper
Before she was 12, Jamie West was in 94 foster homes, six shelters, a group home and a treatment center when they ran out of places to keep me,” “There were no more beds and by that time, I realized the system was probably going to kill me, so I took off on my own.” At 12 years old, she was out on her own, living on the street after a tumultuous beginning of her childhood. Saving graces were few and far between. As a preteen, West stayed in the Mill Avenue homeless encampment in Tempe, Arizona, with other kids like her. “We slept underneath the Mill Avenue Bridge and looked out for each other as best as we could.”
Jamie says she felt lost at this time, but a conversation with a spiritual man led her to want to find herself, and she left Arizona, finding herself in California, where she met a member of counterculture group the Rainbow Family who showed her kindness. West says she stayed with the group for almost two years, but her journey wasn’t over. “After a while, I ended up getting really sick and I realized that once again, I was making life choices that were gonna end up killing me,” she says, adding that she was around 15 when she left California, traveling around the country while picking up odd jobs and farm work.
“I’d hitchhike from one place to another trying to find work, just rambled across the country,” West says. “I had been hungry for over a week when I came across my first White Castle.” She says other fast-food chains and restaurants would sometimes not even allow her entry into the building she looked so grungy, but this time, things went very differently. “I walked into the White Castle, the first one I had ever seen, and this woman goes, ‘Oh, sugar, you poor thing. You go on in that bathroom and get yourself cleaned up,’ and so I did,” West says. “I cried in the bathroom because I was being treated like a human.” While Jamie was in the bathroom, the White Castle employee had bagged every burger cooking on the grill, placing each and every one in bags for the teen. West started to make a fuss about getting that much food for free, but the good Samaritan wasn’t having it. “She said she was just gonna throw them away anyway, and so it was best to go to feed somebody,” West says, adding that the woman poured her three glasses of ice water to go with the food. After eating a bit in the store, she split the rest with others, estimating that it was about three days worth of food given to her for nothing.
“Every time after that, when I saw a White Castle, I knew it was somewhere that I would be safe to run to, and if I was starving, I would be able to get fed,” Jamie says. “It wasn’t something I wanted to take advantage of because the system was so pure. And it was such a beautiful experience to get treated like a human being. I didn’t want to ruin it.” At 17, her bout of homelessness ended when she found an aunt that was able to take her in. After years of unlearning behaviors and kicking habits she had become accustomed to during her teen years, by her 20s, she was back in Arizona, where she met the man who would become her husband, Drew Schmitt. “I worked for a roofing company when I met Jamie 15 years ago,” Schmitt tells TODAY.com, adding that he and West decided to form their Arizona-based foam roofing business, Schmitt Roofing, about eight years ago. “It’s a neat little niche business. Jamie operates all the pumps on the ground and I’m up on the roof squirting the stuff down. That’s our whole business right there.”
When Jamie heard that White Castle was coming to Arizona for the first time in 2019, she was excited, remembering the kindness of the workers that helped her throughout her teens. “I freaked out. I turned to Drew and I was like, ‘We’ve got to camp out! We’ve got to storm the castle! I want to get crowns and battle axes and swords,’” she says. She wasn’t kidding. Local news actually interviewed the couple at the time, who camped out to be the first people to enter the building. West was wearing a crown, and shared her story. White Castle then inducted the couple into its Hall of Fame — a ceremony that led to the couple’s engagement. For the wedding, there was only one acceptable location on the couple’s list: White Castle. Luckily, it also happens to have a kitchen that can churn out food for 200 guests with ease.
The couple said their “I dos” in regalia fitting two White Castle superfans: He in handmade and custom articulated leather armor from Rose and Thorn Armory, and she in a blue beaded and embellished gown with a matching crown. “My dress was a quinceanera dress because it’s our 15th year together,” West added. The couple also had a giant slider replica cake made for the event, which served as the cherry on top of a long journey to wedded bliss. “We are happy beyond words for the joy that Jamie and Drew share, and honored that we were able to play a part in the greatest royal wedding ever!” said Jamie Richardson, the White Castle vice president. “Jamie Schmitt’s story serves as a reminder of the power of kindness and being there for one another as we keep focus on our purpose of feeding the souls of “Craver generations” everywhere.” Now married and a small business owner, Jamie West takes a moment to think about what she would say to the first White Castle employee who provided her with a safe space when she was a teen. “I would hug her and just say, ‘Thank you for being the reason I exist right now, not knowing what you were doing and just feeding somebody because you’re a good human,'” West said. “Honestly, I don’t even have the words.”
Hamburger humor
My dad used to roadie for Meatloaf…
He called himself the “hamburger helper.”
How many vegans does it take to eat a hamburger?
It depends if anyone is looking.
What do you say to someone with a Masters degree in art history?
“Hamburger and fries, please.”
A hamburger and a French fry walk into a bar:
The bartender says, “I’m sorry, but we don’t serve food here.”
June 30th Birthdays
1981 – Karolina Sadalska, 1970 – Monia Potter, 1983 – Lizzie Caplan, 1986 – Victoria Crawford
1966 – Mike Tyson, 1903 – Thomas Sowell , 1952 – Brian Ogilvie, 1985 – Michael Phelps