Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Kohler. Them and their team share their story with us below:
In 2008, Tempa and her husband Michael began thinking about plans for their son Bradley (born with Fragile X Syndrome) for after he turned 22 years old and aged out of county-supported programs. They were trying to determine what jobs would be best for him as a special needs adult. As they were looking, they realized that there weren’t that many options available for adults with special needs. They began to feel that God was giving them a vision for a bakery that would employ special needs adults and also impact their community in a positive way by providing free birthday cakes for children whose families could not afford to purchase one.
Seeing as how Tempa has been baking and decorating since she was 13, they got excited about doing this with their lives, and there were other people who began to get excited and dream along with them. Six years later, their dream became a reality, they leased the building, hired the original staff, and opened on January 23, 2014 which also happens to be Michael’s mother’s birthday.
The opening was so exciting. Their first customers through the door were a special needs group out on community skills that had no idea that they had just opened. The rest of the day was filled with excitement and memorable moments that finished up with their last customers of the day being a young couple with their wheelchair-bound child that had chosen to have dessert rather than dinner for their anniversary as they could only afford one. It was confirmation from God with these bookends on their first day that they were following HIS will for their lives.
There were challenges for them along the way too. They were training new staff and trying to keep up with the orders that were flooding in. Learning how to run a business along with all the demands it required. Special Kneads and Treats has grown so fast and they now have 16 special needs adults in meaningful, gainful employment along with four that volunteer and another 150+ on a waiting list.
A lot of special things happened during a typical week for them. Approximately 600 customers came through the door resulting in almost 1,800 cupcakes being sent out along with various other cakes, cookies, choc-corn, and many other sweet treats.
Sometimes up to 20 free birthday cakes have been provided as well as many donated sweets to various other nonprofits and specialty groups in support of special needs or those less fortunate.
Some of the important things that special needs do on a weekly basis are placing stickers on just about anything you can imagine like bags, boxes, cups, lids, containers, etc. They help with laundry, cleaning and stocking, folding boxes, preparing recipes, decorating products and even assisting customers and in some cases running the registers.
They are honored that their work has caught a good bit of media attention over the last 8.5 years from the local news stations as well as National News and likewise with several media publications. This media coverage has opened their eyes and hearts to the realization that there is a huge need for the services they offer not only in their community but in all communities across the country.
In 2017 they were blessed with the next chapter in the story as a mortgage was obtained for a 12,000 square foot facility with a kitchen larger than the building they started in. This allowed for six dedicated workstations for individuals with mobility issues along with increasing the number of folks that could be employed. In October of 2021, this newly renovated facility was able to be paid in full resulting in a solid foundation for the future of Special Kneads and Treats, Inc. Today, they have 29 paid individuals with some type of disability diagnosis which includes blind, mobility challenged, non-verbal, limited motor skills and varying levels of functional capabilities. With 127 people still on a waiting list seeking opportunities, they are poised for the next chapter which hopefully will see smaller storefronts in surrounding communities which will allow for more folks to work as well as be able to serve the free cakes they provide for families of children that cannot afford them. Special Kneads and Treats is poised to expand into an even greater impact.
They are excited for the next phase of their journey to provide special needs adults with a meaningful job that encourages a sense of purpose and pride. They would love for you to be a part of their Special Community.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The largest challenge much like any nonprofit is funding. We also find that many people do not truly understand what being a nonprofit means and that doing too much retail is not a good thing for a nonprofit status. Also, with our business model of hiring special needs adults people tend to overlook the fact that our core mission is actually trying to ensure that local children that have a birthday and cannot afford birthday cakes get one free from us. We also find it challenging that we want to help so many more special needs adults and with a waitlist of over 120, we just cannot help them all. Now with the new facility, we are poised to help many more in our community and within the special needs focus but funding is at a premium and without monthly recurring support, we will not be able to grow much at all.
One major hurdle that was overcome just after procuring this larger facility was the fact that we had no cash flow and in jeopardy of having to close our doors. However, after a very successful first Gala-Q in 2019 their course was changed and has not looked back. A challenge was made at their 3rd annual Gala-Q in 2021 to raise funds to pay off the mortgage and the community rallied around them resulting in the ability to pay it off in full in October of last year. Being debt-free has allowed the focus to shift even further towards the future expansion and growth of the missions and their hopes of opening more storefronts for special needs adults to work as well as broaden their community outreach.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
There have been many things that come to mind but, I would have to say that one of the proudest moments in the past year was that we had a blind young lady with a seeing-eye dog come up next on our waiting list and rather than immediately moving on due to not being able to have dogs in a bakery kitchen, we met and figured out how to best accommodate for both her needs and our regulations. She enters through the back of the building into the far end of the storeroom where her dog enters a crate and then she gets out her cane and follows the grit taped path to the kitchen where she can then begin her workday doing various tasks that we continue to find ways to incorporate. We have learned so much from embracing her disability that not only helps her with the ability to be productive but also helps others with differently-abled opportunities. Things like scales that speak, templates for placing baked goods on baking sheets, various sensory types of improvements and the likes which we had never even thought of.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I grew up pretty much a city kid but my dad took me hunting and fishing and I even got to spend summers running around the woods and playing at the lake. I played some sports and video games and loved to draw and learn about animals. At one point, I thought I wanted to be a zoologist. I mingled pretty much with every group of people and had a lot of friends growing up as well.
Contact Info:
- Email: michael@specialkneadsandtreats.org
- Website: http://www.specialkneadsandtreats.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/247459024/special-kneads-and-treats-inc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SpecialKneadsAndTreatsInc
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/specialkneads38?lang=en
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2WpILd0pcY
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/special-kneads-and-treats-lawrenceville
