Greyston Bakery offered a single mother of five employment after she was in desperate need of a job.

“At one point in my life, I was down and out,” says Shawna Swanson.

Swanson tells News 12 that in 2016, things were so bad financially that she contemplated separating her children.

“That's the worst feeling any mother could have,” says Swanson.

After multiple rejections and months of being told ‘no,’ the Yonkers mother finally received the answer she’d been waiting for.

Greyston Bakery offered her a position. “They kept my family together, so I feel like I owe them everything,” says Swanson.

The bakery’s president, Joe Kenner, sincerely believes in open hiring -- no background checks, no resumes and no interviews.

He says it’s a way to invest in people who have a desire to work, like Swanson.

“It's truly a way of giving folks hope and a way of telling them the past doesn't matter,” says Kenner. “We only care about the future and your success.”

The newly hired bakery employee says she is so grateful to have a job at Greyston Bakery and hopes other companies will consider a similar ‘open hiring’ model.

News 12 is told Swanson’s story was so inspiring that it is now a part of a documentary called "Wide Open Dreams."  

The virtual premiere for the documentary and a fundraiser will take place on May 18.