Foundation offers fund matching campaign to aid workers at cafe

ELMORE - Since opening in 2019, Christy’s Corner Café has been providing individuals with special needs the opportunity to gain employable skills, earn a living, and make connections one cup of coffee at a time. From day one, Emily Kehlmeier has been on staff, helping in the kitchen and in the dining room.

“I like working here at Christy’s,” Kehlmeier said. “I do the dishes and wait on customers, and, sometimes, they let me work the cash register.”

Agency holding campaign to raise funds for the cafe

Christy’s Corner Café has impacted the lives of dozens of individuals with disabilities, providing over 1,300 hours of paid employment for employees with disabilities in 2023 alone. Now, the foundation is seeking help to sustain its mission into the future. Engaging Opportunities Foundation, the parent organization for Christy’s Corner Café, is hosting a matching campaign for the café. Every donation will be matched up to $10,000, helping Christy’s meet its goal of $20,000.

The current focus is sustaining the café, which has higher overhead costs than typical coffee shops. A majority of the café’s employees have job coaches, which doubles salary costs for the business.

“We need more staff than most coffee shops, and that doubles the payroll,” said Engaging Opportunities Foundation founder and board member, Kathy Barbee.

Engaging Opportunities Foundation offers a wide-reaching approach to its employees as it addresses social needs as well as employment needs. Monthly inclusion events that were paused during COVID-19 were reinstated this year.

“We recently had a canvas painting class, and we’re going to have a knitting class,” Barbee said.

For many Christy’s employees, the coffee shop is a training ground to help them fulfill their career goals. At Christy’s, they learn basic employment skills they can carry into the next job. When possible, the foundation helps its employees gain skills through educational classes.

“One of our employees took a health department certification class with his job coach. We’re looking to see if there are other opportunities for employees to take online courses with their job coaches,” Barbee said.

Barbee said the Engaging Opportunities Foundation focuses on helping its employees discover what they want out of life. A former employee wanted to find a job working outside, so he worked at Christy’s until he saved enough money to buy a truck. The truck helped him find his dream job with a landscaping company.

“He wants to work. He has goals. He worked here to save money for the truck,” Barbee said. “Now he’s on his third year working full-time.”

Matching funds campaign will aid more people reach goals

The matching funds campaign will help more individuals with disabilities reach their goals, whether they dream of leaving to find different work, or they find happiness in long-term employment at Christy’s, like Kehlmeier.

“My favorite part is the customers, and sometimes my family comes in, too,” she said.

Donations can be sent to 368 Rice St., Elmore, OH 43416, and online donations can be made at www.christyscornercafe.com. Every dollar up to $10,000 will be matched, making contributions doubly impactful.

Contact correspondent Sheri Trusty at sheritrusty4@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Supporting agency of Christy's Corner Cafe seeks donations