Local Coffee Company Provides Special Needs Kids with Jobs

A local coffee company is providing special needs kids with jobs.

"Our Coffee with a Cause," a nonprofit organization, was started by Northport resident Stacey Wohl, parent of two children with autism. Wohl has been in the coffee business since the early 90s and saw an opportunity to show the world that there is "ability in disability."

"Most jobs that special needs kids have are usually behind the scenes in sheltered workshops and they're not really out in the community socializing," she said. "We want to employ young adults with disabilities and give them social skills and have them be a presence in the community."

Special needs young adults help with packaging, shipping, and delivery at Our Coffee with a Cause. More advanced young adults can work with an assistant selling coffee through a specially designed iPad app.

A percentage of proceeds are donated to Plainview-based ACDS, an organization providing lifetime services to people with a wide range of disabilities, and to Wohl's respite house project, Our Own Place.

Wohl envisions Our Own Place as an "achievement facility with educational job training, indoor sports facility, unique shopping stores, salon and day spa, and a flagship store called Our Cause Cafe for special needs children and their families to enjoy and potentially have an opportunity for gainful employment."

She hopes to gain corporate sponsorship for the project and have it based in her hometown of Northport. Click here for more information about "Our Own Place."

Our Coffee with a Cause is available in 12 oz. bags of 100 percent Colombian roast or Organic Blend at Organically Yours, Seven Brothers Gourmet Deli, and Metro Mart in the Northport area, and at Sandwich Express in Plainview. It is also available at the Farmingdale Farmers Market starting on Sunday, May 12 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

"We're hoping to take it all over the place," said Wohl, "even overseas where there is a big shortage of jobs for kids with disabilities."

For more information, visit Our Coffee with a Cause on Facebook.