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Our Coffee With a Cause

Staff members of Cause Café gather outside the front entrance. Photo from Stacey Wohl

Morning routines for residents in Huntington are about to get a little sweeter.

Fort Salonga’s Cause Café is the newest coffee shop working to bring jobs to young adults with cognitive and developmental disabilities.

Stacey Wohl, founder and co-owner of the café, has run the Our Coffee with a Cause coffee brand business with her two children, Brittney and Logan, since it was founded in 2012. Cause Café will sell its coffee, as well as breakfast foods, sandwiches and more.

Brittney and Logan, who both have autism, were named co-owners of the business in November 2015, and will both be working at the coffee shop. The shop is a crucial resource for young adults with disabilities, the owner said.

Staff members cut the ribbon at the opening of Cause Café. Photo from Stacey Wohl
Staff members cut the ribbon at the opening of Cause Café along with Councilman Mark Cuthbertson. Photo from Stacey Wohl

“I started talking to other parents and they had no job opportunities for their young adults with autism,” she said in an interview on Tuesday.

Although programs are set up for internships to work with nearby businesses, Wohl said they don’t translate into actual jobs.

“They fall off the cliff at about 22 years of age,” she said.

Aside from the kitchen staff and the counter manager, Wohl said every other employee at Cause Café is working with some form of a disability.

“I wanted a retail place where people saw the young adults with special needs and they were visible in the community,” Wohl said. “There are some companies who hire the disabled, but they are behind the scenes. [Here] they are right alongside with typical individuals in the community, doing some of the same jobs. They are involved in every aspect from the beginning.”

The founder said she is hoping to inspire other businesses to hire the disabled, and also expand this store into a chain, to create as many job opportunities as possible.

“I could open up 10 stores right now with the amount of people that want a job,” Wohl said. “I have parents calling me every day all the time, emailing, Facebook, calling. There are no jobs for kids with special needs.”

According to Disability Statistics, in 2014, 34.6 percent of Americans between the ages of 21-36 were employed. In New York, out of about 1.1 million residents with disabilities, only about 351,000 were employed.

The United States Census Bureau said between 2008 and 2010, individuals with disabilities accounted for 9.4 million, or 6 percent, of the approximate 155.9 million employed citizens.

In terms of what this coffee shop will offer to residents’ palettes, the choices are international and diverse.

The interior of Cause Café. Photo by Victoria Espinoza
The interior of Cause Café. Photo by Victoria Espinoza

“I always wanted to go to France, so France came to me,” Wohl said of the theme of the shop and many of the items on the menu. She said the store is highlighting some products that “you can’t really find unless you go to Provence,” seeing as many items have been imported straight from that region in France.

Andrew Popkin, sous-chef at Cause Café, said that the menu features all homemade items that are both healthy and delicious. Popkin said the menu will have weekly seasonal specials, and some of the highlights for him include the buttermilk pancakes with maple butter syrup and the quiches.

“Our food is going to match up to [competitors] and, at the same time, you’re helping kids out who don’t usually have the opportunity to work,” Popkin said of why residents should stop in for a meal.

Cause Café is located at 1014 Fort Salonga Road and is open Tuesday through Sunday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. starting this Saturday, May 7.

Business employs other local disabled individuals

Pictured, Brittney (left) and Logan (right) Wohl, co-owners of Our Coffee with a Cause, with their mother Stacey Wohl (center), company founder/president. Photo from PRMG New York

The sister-and-brother team, Brittney, age 18, and Logan Wohl, age 16, of Northport, are the newly appointed co-owners of Our Coffee with a Cause Inc., a business that employs individuals with cognitive and developmental disabilities and funds local charities that support them. These siblings with autism have dedicated their time to helping other special-needs teens and adults by providing gainful employment opportunities in a supportive business setting.

Our Coffee with a Cause was founded in 2012 by Stacey Wohl, mother of Brittney and Logan, in response to the growing concern for special-needs individuals on Long Island who are aging out of schools to find job opportunities and a learning environment to acquire real-life skills. The employees package coffee, apply labels to the bags and coordinate shipments. Additional opportunities are available during Our Coffee with a Cause’s sales and informational events, during which employees work with an assistant to sell coffee and products using a custom-designed iPad app and interacting with customers.

A portion of the business proceeds benefit Our Own Place, a non-profit organization that Stacey Wohl founded to provide unique opportunities to special-needs children and their single parents. The organization’s ultimate mission is to open a weekend respite home for families of children with cognitive disabilities that will provide job training and socialization skills to its residents and will feature a café at which Our Coffee products will be brewed and sold.

Stacey Wohl and her mother and business partner, Susan Schultz, bring to the company a combined 50 years of business experience, along with the knowledge of addressing the unique needs of teens and adults with disabilities.

“Our Coffee with a Cause is dedicated to employing special-needs adults and showing that there is ability in disability,” says Stacey Wohl. “I am proud to name Brittney and Logan as the owners of this business, which provides careers to people with disabilities who may not otherwise have the opportunity.”

Although 53 million adults in the United States are living with a disability, as many as 70 percent of this working-age population are currently unemployed. For many, the current systems in place to support both young adults and their families disappear once the teen “ages out” of the education system, typically when they turn 21. In 2016, nearly 500,000 autistic persons will enter this category, in addition to adults with Down Syndrome and other cognitive conditions.

For more information, visit www.ourcoffeewithacause.net.