What if there was a place where everyone, regardless of their abilities, was valued and had the opportunity to shine? This is the reality at the So Much To Give Inclusive Cafe in Skippak, Pennsylvania. Today's guest is the co-founder and General Manager of the cafe, Tyler Kammerle. Tyler started his career teaching followed by a move to directing a workforce development program for young adults with disabilities, and finally to his current role. He believes in the potential of every individual, and that everyone has something to contribute to society, a philosophy that is palpably present in our interview, Tyler's day to day life, and in the cafe's environment.
Tyler takes us through the inception of the cafe, borne out of a shared vision and a passion for bringing out the best in everyone around us. The Cafe is not just a place to eat and drink, but a thriving community where adults with disabilities and their families, have equal opportunities to work, dine, socialize, volunteer, and learn. Through this, Tyler and his team have created a space that bridges the gap for all adults to take part in activities that can be difficult to access.
The So Much To Give Inclusive Cafe
3401 W Skippack Pike
Skippack , PA 19423
https://www.somuchtogivecafe.org/
https://www.instagram.com/somuchtogiveinclusivecafe/?hl=en
https://www.facebook.com/SoMuchtoGiveCafePa
What if there was a place where everyone, regardless of their abilities, was valued and had the opportunity to shine? This is the reality at the So Much To Give Inclusive Cafe in Skippak, Pennsylvania. Today's guest is the co-founder and General Manager of the cafe, Tyler Kammerle. Tyler started his career teaching followed by a move to directing a workforce development program for young adults with disabilities, and finally to his current role. He believes in the potential of every individual, and that everyone has something to contribute to society, a philosophy that is palpably present in our interview, Tyler's day to day life, and in the cafe's environment.
Tyler takes us through the inception of the cafe, borne out of a shared vision and a passion for bringing out the best in everyone around us. The Cafe is not just a place to eat and drink, but a thriving community where adults with disabilities and their families, have equal opportunities to work, dine, socialize, volunteer, and learn. Through this, Tyler and his team have created a space that bridges the gap for all adults to take part in activities that can be difficult to access.
The So Much To Give Inclusive Cafe
3401 W Skippack Pike
Skippack , PA 19423
https://www.somuchtogivecafe.org/
https://www.instagram.com/somuchtogiveinclusivecafe/?hl=en
https://www.facebook.com/SoMuchtoGiveCafePa
Hey everybody, I'm Kimberly Dobbs.
Speaker 2:And I'm Jacob Miller.
Speaker 1:And we'd like to welcome you to another episode of Intuitive Choices.
Speaker 2:Kim and I are mental health therapists working in Philadelphia.
Speaker 1:Each week, we invite a guest to speak about how their own intuitive choices have led them to live a more meaningful life.
Speaker 2:We hope that this conversation encourages you to make meaningful choices in your own life.
Speaker 1:Alright, off we go.
Speaker 2:Let's do it.
Speaker 1:Hey everybody, this is Kim.
Speaker 2:And this is Jacob.
Speaker 1:And we'd like to welcome you to another episode of Intuitive Choices. Today we have with us, super pumped about it, tyler Camerley. He is the co-founder of, quite honestly, one of the most incredible concepts in a cafe I've ever come across, and it's called so Much to Give Cafe Camer crosses, I think, the way most of us come across things in the world today on social media. It just so happened to come up on my feed and somebody posted about it and I started clicking and reading all about it and I couldn't believe it, because it is a cafe exclusively about being inclusive. That's all I'm going to say about it. I'm just going to just say, tyler, jacob and I are so excited to have you so welcome.
Speaker 3:Thanks for being here. Thank you, guys. I'm equally excited. I just haven't met you guys in the last week. I listened to a few of the episodes. I love what you guys are doing here.
Speaker 1:Thank you, it's a really cool part. Thank you, I can't appreciate that. Alright, I'm glad you're a fan, and vice versa. So let's just say Jacob, do you want to start, or should I?
Speaker 2:Yeah, tyler, just let us know a little bit more about so Much to Give Cafe, what the model is, and then we'll learn a little bit more how you got there. Cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we've been open for almost a year now. I think we're in the 10 month section getting there. I think November is going to be our first year, which is awesome because when we were getting into this we were looking at stats and none of us had much prior experience in the restaurant industry. So we're going through and looking at all the things that could go right and go wrong and I think there's a stat out there like 80 to 90% of restaurants fail in the first year.
Speaker 1:So we're already like. So you looked at all of those statistics before you started this cafe.
Speaker 3:Whatever we could find. So many different statistics out there, and then you get those iPoppers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you said we. Who are you referring to?
Speaker 3:So me and two other women, we kind of came together about a year ago their names are Maureen Stanko and Kathy Opperman and we had this shared vision of kind of getting this cafe off the ground and just being something in our community that can help a lot of people and hopefully open a lot of eyes.
Speaker 2:So where is that community and what community is it we?
Speaker 3:are in Skiback. It's kind of just outside of Philadelphia. Where we are here. It's kind of close to Narshtown, lansdale. Yeah, it's the Montgomery County area, sure.
Speaker 1:And what? When you say, when I said you know it's very inclusive, you know, describe the mission of this cafe because it's really unique.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I love what you said when you're opening up. You said exclusively inclusive, which is exactly what we try to be. It's just about kind of showing the entire community, anybody that walks in that we have so many people with differing abilities and skill sets and we're just trying to show them off to everybody that comes in. We have, I'd say, like five or six major positions just most restaurants and cafes do and we try to employ people with all varying, different abilities in all the spots and the whole model.
Speaker 2:When you say ability, you're not talking about like this guy's a chef and this guy's a painter and this you know the clarification question.
Speaker 3:Great question. Yeah, so everybody. There's so many people out there with different skill sets, as we all know, like we all go into different fields and we have these things about ourselves that just make us special and different. So that is kind of what we try to focus on in the cafe and in the world that hopefully everybody exists in. But a lot of our employees do have diagnosed disabilities and while we acknowledge that fact and there are barriers that everybody faces with different disabilities, we try to focus on all these varying abilities that these people have.
Speaker 1:And drawing the strength and turning it into abilities. Right Looking at it and going, oh no, no, no, this is an ability yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly. Everybody has so many different, unique strengths, and that's what the focus should always be on in every walk of life.
Speaker 2:You know, when I first heard like so much to give, cafe and do this was a cafe that was focusing on employing and hosting individuals you know, with with autism spectrum disorder diagnosis, down syndrome diagnosis a slew of things In my mind I was thinking like, oh, so much to give because we're giving them an opportunity to work and then shame.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I appreciate that for being honest and open over here and then I was watching the news clip that you had posted on your website and when I'm not sure if it was which are the two women you work with mentioned it. Maureen yeah, maureen said so much to give is because these individuals who are working there have so much to give, and people marginalize them in society and say you can't contribute.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, and it touched me so deeply because one of my mission statements as a therapist is like I firmly believe, almost as an article of faith, that like every individual has a way that they can improve themselves and contribute to society, and I literally believe that's every individual.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah and a purpose. You don't have to have religion or any of that to know for sure it's just everybody was put here for a reason and and there are so many different avenues that you can take as that individual. But you are here and you're going to do something.
Speaker 2:And to do that by giving people work, you know, allowing them to contribute. That just touched me so deeply.
Speaker 1:Right, because here's the other thing. Well, let's talk a little bit more about this cafe, because it the other thing that I find really cool about it is you have all kinds of really cool events, like you guys are always doing something. This really isn't just a place for us to come and eat, you know, or drink. You do all kinds of things for the, for the community, with the community, right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's, that's the whole purpose. Sometimes I think we get a little too far ahead of ourselves. We do a little bit too much. We're still just trying to figure out like how to, how to correct the simple things of a restaurant. But yeah, we do like bingo, trivia, karaoke, we have some dances. We're hoping to do a lot more, but the whole point, like you said, is just to get everybody into one spot and be able to do it together. It's very difficult at times for I think, the adult population who have disabilities, to kind of access these things. Sometimes, like I would go out to trivia nights all the time.
Speaker 1:That was my thing to do for myself and my friends and it's like so easily accessible.
Speaker 3:You do it on a Monday, tuesday, wednesday, whenever bars have in it, but it's not something that's very easy for some of these people to get to, just for transportation reasons, even just understanding like the concept of what trivia night is and how to participate in it. So it's something that we're trying to get people together just just to participate and kind of like teach each other how to do it as one.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, that's fantastic. I just Tyler, Tell us a little bit more about yourself, your own story and how it merges with the creation of so much to give Cafe.
Speaker 3:Um, yeah, no, personally, uh, I guess grew up in family of five. I got two brothers, uh, their twins, one on to do all some things, are you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I didn't want to tell you before.
Speaker 3:Because I didn't wait over the podcast yeah. But also, okay, keep going. Did you have another sibling?
Speaker 1:I have four. I have I have three siblings, and one of them is a twin.
Speaker 3:It was always hard for me because they would always bond together and group up against me, so I was like back against the it is.
Speaker 1:It is in my, in my family. It's like my two older siblings. I mean, all four of us are really close, but they're like they pair up, and then my twin and I, so it's the kind of natural how it fell. But yeah, I'd imagine, if it's a little triad, you're the one that gets left out. Yep, yeah.
Speaker 3:We got past and now we're all friends, yeah, uh, so group and family of five, uh kind of suburbs of Lake landsdale, nars town area, uh, right across the street from a farm. So I actually worked on that for a while, um, through like middle school and high school, love farms, kind of love the quiet area. What'd you do on the farm? Um, it was a part like farm, part ice cream store.
Speaker 1:So, wait, wait, which one is it? It's called Mary Mead Farm. Of course, you have to name these things because the people who listen to it, you know they got a huge fine.
Speaker 3:They do the fall fest to come up, oh my gosh, Mary made yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I worked there for a while Uh kind of came to love that environment Um, and growing up I always uh I was kind of naive in the fact that there are so many different ways to help people. I think like everybody has ways to contribute to people's growth. But from a very early age I would go to uh go to schools on my off day with my godmom, who was a special ed teacher, um, and I would get to like just go and interact with different kids, um not fully understanding like different uh disabilities, like autism spectrum disorder, down syndrome, all that yeah, um, and I would just go and like hang out. It was cool, like I was hanging out with these really cool kids that were my age on my off days and Wait, let me.
Speaker 1:let me just stop you, cause I something that you're set, that you said is already striking me as, like you are a little different. Um, which is, you said you were naive to this idea of, like, helping people can look different ways, and I just want to point out that. How old were you?
Speaker 3:Probably middle school, I'd say like 12, 13.
Speaker 1:Um, I don't know a lot of 12 and 13 year old kids that even think about helping other people on that, on that level, like that that's even something, because even developmentally we're very egocentric at that age, right Like your very age. You're very much around, like you know yourself and kind of learning who you are, and those kinds of things that really stands out to me about you that you were already from such a young age like thinking about others in a way that I think is unique.
Speaker 3:Oh, thank you. Yeah, my mama, my mom, dad, they definitely raised us right.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 3:Um, but yeah, no. So I uh kind of always just wanted to be a teacher. I saw what she was doing, I saw how she helped kids and I got to be a part of those classrooms for like a day or two days in a year. I was like I knew I wanted to do that right there. Um, but again, kind of early on, not thinking how many different ways there are to help people out there, I was just like right into that box of teacher and I never really explored anything outside of that all through high school and then once I graduated, um, that was trying to emulate what you saw.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, I just saw it. I want to help people.
Speaker 2:Teachers help people. Yeah, I'm a teacher, exactly, it just made sense to me. Yeah.
Speaker 3:So I went to Westchester uh got my degree in special education and early education. Okay, Um it's great, great, great. Four years there, um and then.
Speaker 1:Do you feel like during college you it was something that you still felt felt passionate leaf about was teaching throughout college, as you were going for a degree in teaching.
Speaker 3:Definitely, I think, the cool thing about college and I'm hoping, most degrees for this way. I only experienced this one degree, um, but it was kind of like a slow buildup, like you slowly gather more information that keeps you wanting to learn more, um, and just getting to then like apply it in different situations. We had so many different field placements, so many different schools and grade levels and I was like cool, there's so many options, I'm going to find the right one and I'm going to be a teacher and that's going to be my life. Um. So, yeah, no, it definitely kept me wanting more and wanting to stay in the field. Uh, and then graduated, um, and I worked in two classrooms as a teacher. Um, my first year I was in a life skills classroom, uh. Second, I was an emotional support classroom.
Speaker 2:What? What does that mean? What's life skills? What's your most emotional support?
Speaker 3:Great question Uh, life skills. Um, it's primarily to help uh uh individuals with autism spectrum disorder and different um abilities, kind of learning just to navigate life, uh in the simple skills that maybe some of us learned a little bit earlier, like cooking, um kind of how to navigate a school. Uh, the basics of education and just learning like how to live and be successful as a individual uh in the world going through the day to day motion Somebody people take for granted.
Speaker 3:Yes, exactly, that's a good point. It's a great point. Um, and then emotional support, uh, similar stuff, but a lot more based on, probably, stuff that you guys work on very much here, uh, and just kind of like introspective, reflecting on yourself Maybe. Why did I choose to do this? What can I choose to do better?
Speaker 1:Um and those kinds of kids emotional support.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was middle school.
Speaker 2:Wow, should offer that to the rest of the school, not just you know, it's for any kid.
Speaker 3:Honestly, some of the classrooms I came to learn. It's like you have so many different names, but all these lessons apply to everybody.
Speaker 1:So when, as a teacher, though um, being being a life skills and emotional support teacher, that is, you could say maybe like a little bit of a niche in teaching, right, that, like not all teachers, like most teachers are, are not necessarily working more specifically with life skills and emotional support, I mean, obviously those things come up naturally in a classroom, but, like did did, is that what you wanted to focus on?
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, so those those specific rooms, those specific rooms, those specific rooms, those are there for uh kids with IEPs, which means you pretty much have some kind of diagnosed disability.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Um, so that was my major, that's what I kind of wanted to do, um, and had an experience, and so it was. It was everything I was looking for, um, and I guess into my second year, uh, in that emotional support room, I really like started to reflect on myself and I just I started to learn. I guess there are again so many different ways to help people that I never really explored and I never even thought about it. And then I started to really second guess if I wanted to just continue teaching like, uh, a typical public school setting.
Speaker 1:What, what, what does it look like? When you say, like you started to reflect, I want to know what did it look like for you. What does self-reflection look like? And then, typically not for everybody, but self-reflection is usually prompted by something that you might be experiencing in life, right so?
Speaker 3:Yeah, Um, I think I just knew that I wasn't. I wasn't in the right spot, I don't know.
Speaker 2:there wasn't like a really specific moment where I like a slow build, like day to day, like you weren't feeling as fulfilled as you would have hoped. To work would have made you yeah.
Speaker 3:I was like second guessing, I guess the impact I was having that year, um, what I was doing for the kids, what it was giving to me personally cause we're all on our own journey too Um, and it just didn't.
Speaker 2:It didn't necessarily feel like a hundred percent fit Can you think of a moment or like a specific, like thing that was in your life, that like it felt, like it wasn't right.
Speaker 3:I don't think there was an exact moment. I think it was that whole year, Um cause I guess that was like my culmination. The first year it was a.
Speaker 3:It was a long-term sub job, so you don't really have that like contract that most teachers work for Um and then after my first year in that other school district I got the contract. I interviewed for this new position and got it and that's kind of like the trajectory I think most teachers take you get your contract, you go back, you get your master's degree and kind of move, move up. So I was on that trajectory that I knew I had wanted but it just didn't, it wasn't clicking, it didn't feel like I was. I was supposed to be going with that trajectory.
Speaker 2:So maybe while you were subbing you're like this doesn't feel fully right, but it's cause I don't have the contract, that's cause I came in late.
Speaker 1:Give me all kinds of reasons, right.
Speaker 2:So when you had the contract and everything like quote unquote, like should have been the way you imagined and it still didn't hit.
Speaker 3:That's when you checked in with yourself Exactly, yep, it just it was supposed to be right and it just something was off, yeah, and then what did?
Speaker 1:what did checking in with yourself look like, was there anything like you did, like rock climbing, climbing or like I?
Speaker 3:don't know like went for rock climbing. I don't know. That just came to me. I was like I don't know Like, did you like go? I was actually thinking like a rock gym.
Speaker 1:I don't even know it just like came to me, like maybe you went like.
Speaker 3:Little projection. That's a little projection.
Speaker 2:This is when I know I was thinking maybe like on the drive to work or, like you know, like heading home at the end of the day.
Speaker 1:Maybe you needed like a life or death kind of experience, okay, so, so all turns aside though. Like was there, was there. How did that look for you, like your process of self-reflection?
Speaker 3:I probably kind of like what Jacob was saying, kind of on the way in. You're like oh, I'm not like super juice to go to work that day. You get there and some things are going right, some things are going wrong, but you're focused more on the wrong and you know, you should always be focused on, on what's going right or how to correct the wrongs.
Speaker 2:So like not throwing anyone under the bus. What things were wrong for you? Like what wasn't.
Speaker 3:It was just me, it was my head. I was like, did I make the right call there? Like did I do the right thing for that kid? And you just, you know, when you second guess everything, you're just not a hundred percent. Sure, it kind of it builds, like you said before, and you start to really, um wonder if if you're in the right spot for yourself. But if you're not in the right spot for yourself, are you really in the right spot for anybody else?
Speaker 2:Um, you know, that's really an important point, at least for me, and let me know if I'm hearing this right. But it's like I think, when people feel that self-critical voice, they dial in on themselves and try to become perfectionistic in their task. So someone like I'm not getting my paperwork in at work on time, or I don't feel totally comfortable in this meeting, they focus on themselves and they think they're inadequate. And how can I rise the occasion in this job? And instead of? I think what would have been inappropriate is to try to force yourself into a job that may not been right for you. You're open enough to find a new way. Does that sound right? That's exactly right. Yeah, Wow, that's huge.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you feel that's huge.
Speaker 3:Oh no, looking back it was everything Like. I'm very happy. I kind of like made the choice to just move past teaching at that point. That was my last year.
Speaker 1:Especially being so self-critical, like being like, almost like blaming yourself. You know, going through that process of blaming yourself like is this my fault? What am I doing wrong? Blah, blah, blah. At some point that shifted to a recognition that it wasn't a good fit, not necessarily because you were doing something wrong, and I do need to point that out to you. I think that's important to point out, that there was ultimately a shift of like within you. It sounds like it's not because I'm doing anything wrong. You know what I mean In this. It's that maybe the environment, maybe the whatever it is, the leadership here, whatever it is, that it's something is not aligning to like your own core values, you know.
Speaker 3:Oh, I firmly believe that. I don't think there ever is a reason necessarily to shift blame or find something that was the wrong thing. I think it's just like when things fit, they fit and when they don't. You kind of got to be aware and cognizant of that and you got to choose to figure out either how to fix it or where to go from there.
Speaker 2:Yeah so had you.
Speaker 3:Where do you go from there?
Speaker 2:I guess.
Speaker 3:So I decided at the end of that school year I was going to try something other than teaching and it was one of the best decisions I ever made, probably up until this cafe decision. And I connected with a place that I actually did one of my placements for as a teacher in college, like one of my field work placements, and the place was called the Variety Club and it actually was like five minutes from where I grew up and I'd never heard of it until I was like 19. And one of my one of my coursework things required me to go volunteer for 20 to 30 hours or something at a nonprofit or somewhere where you can like practice your educational skills. So I went there, fell in love with the place at 19. What is the Variety Club Like? What do they do?
Speaker 3:Great question, it's this little hidden gem, again, kind of close to where we, where I grew up, and it's just a camp that focuses on providing different programs for kids with different abilities and disabilities, and it's kids, adults, and they do different kinds of things like vocational skills, after school programs, summer camps, and it's just. It's probably the one of those things you call like your second home for me.
Speaker 2:Nice Wow.
Speaker 3:Okay, yeah, I grew up I had, like friends in high school, friends in college, kind of lost touch with them along the way. But the one core group that I always come back to is anybody I've ever met there and that's like it's my place with my people Wow you find this.
Speaker 3:you find this area where people just see things the same way as you. And soon as I was there when I was 19, I kind of felt that and then I would go back every summer when I wasn't in school and that's where I would do like summer camps in our sweet Okay.
Speaker 3:So I get past my like teaching realization and I reach out to somebody over there and her name was Heather and she was my boss for a couple years over there and she she was getting ready to start a workforce development program for young adults with disabilities, okay, at Variety, which had they hadn't done prior to that. So she brought me in and there's just like an entry level job and we had a program model that she had created and there was probably like four of us and we all had our kind of own piece of what we were working to develop there. So I was doing something called small group programming and it was just focused on like teaching three different individuals kind of like those life skills, like how to make things, how to sell things, how to do this one aspect of like working a job.
Speaker 2:Who are you working with? Like when, when, just to like so I can understand better, so our listeners can understand better. Like, like what. What disabilities do these individuals have? How old are they? Like what, what's going on?
Speaker 3:Sure, yeah, so everybody was a young adult. I think everybody was over 21 at that point, probably between 21 and 30. So very similar age to myself, okay, and my job was to kind of teach the things that I was learning about life. It's like, hey, I'm going through these like realizations and trying to figure out where I want to go with my career and learn how to work and be professional and appropriate and all that, and I'm also teaching people how to do that through the program we were running.
Speaker 2:That's great, so it was really cool.
Speaker 3:It was like this awesome self, self kind of reflective thing for me to not only be figuring it out but also be passing the skills that I'm going through Because, like when you're going through it, it's probably one of the best ways to actually teach somebody, because it's right there in your mind.
Speaker 2:It also allows you to be more reflective about the process as it's going on, exactly Because wow, that's really quite the opportunity.
Speaker 1:What I was going to say. Gift like when you talk about like those like magical moments that you have in life, that's that just feels like one of them. I'm so grateful for that, yeah.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, we get into that. That was definitely what I set my mind to, and we had a cool team. We grew a few programs together. Heather eventually moved on to another job and I think she knew we had a lot of talks, we became very close. It was one of my favorite mentors of all time and eventually, when she left, she let me take over the program. So I kind of became the director of it all, with all the people that we had started it with.
Speaker 2:How old were you? I was like 24 at that point 24, being the director of program like this. That sounds like a quite accomplishment. It was really cool.
Speaker 3:I was really excited. We again we kind of we had talks before that and I think she knew like I finally, I finally felt like I had found what I wanted to do. It just it all made sense. I really enjoyed what I was doing, felt like I was making great impact and I think when she was leaving, it was kind of a program that she had built and she she fortunately entrusted it into me. So yeah, it was.
Speaker 1:How did that feel oh?
Speaker 3:it was tremendous, it was so cool.
Speaker 1:You're smiling, yeah.
Speaker 3:It was like I finally had like my big boy job that I wanted, and it was all like going the right way. I finally felt like that trajectory was in the right spot. So, yeah, it was a great headspace.
Speaker 1:You don't work there anymore.
Speaker 3:I don't. I had worked there when I started that year. I worked there up until this past year when we decided to go for the cafe dream and what's the connection between the variety club and the cafe. Yeah they're very close, probably five minutes apart now. I think a lot of people that I met the last five years working there now also work at the cafe.
Speaker 3:Okay so I was able to build like a lot of strong relationships with these young adults and their families and I think when we started talking about this opportunity with the cafe and the community, a lot of the people were like, oh my God, this is great. We're going to do this together again.
Speaker 1:I feel like I'm going to ask a Jacob question, I don't know why. I think it's like how do you go from the variety club to the, to a cafe? I think that's like a Jacob question. It's such a Jacob question. Yeah, it's like a question I probably don't fully comprehend it.
Speaker 3:Back when I was I think it was my last year of college me and a girlfriend at the time, she actually was in here in temple. I think you went to temple to my master's a temple.
Speaker 3:Yeah, awesome spot, yeah. But we were actually. We were just like kind of bull in the dorm room one day and we're just like talking about dreams in life and all that you know that fun stuff to talk about, yeah. And we had this idea of like starting something one day based around a restaurant. And she was really into like farming too and she was like, oh, cool, we'll get, we'll get a horticultural aspect to it, we'll start a preschool and we all kind of like put our little dreams into it. And it was just this pipe dream at the time, but it's something that I kind of held on to the whole time. It was like that would be really cool. And then I, as I learned, we were just people like talk about dreams.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just like, hang it like, like, like my whole life with one of my best friends, gil, like we would just talk about, like, oh, we can like start this thing back home, we can do this thing, and it's just like what we say all the time is like we're idea, guys, like nothing ever comes to fruition. But? But you went from being like an idea guy to actually carrying it out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it happened. It was always there in the back of my head and there was like so few times because that was probably seven, eight years before this past year when we started the cafe and it like it resonates because it's something you really care about, like an idea, and when it's something that you kind of like formed in your head, it's just something that doesn't go away, you know.
Speaker 1:But why a restaurant Like? What about that, I think, appealed to you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think the piece of a restaurant is like at least when I go out and I'm hoping most people to go out that it's like you are going to kind of get a great meal but also find yourself in a happy spot outside of your home, you know, like home. Home is where everybody feels comfortable, at least where you're supposed to.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But when I go to a restaurant, like yeah, I'm looking for good food, but I'm also looking for a place where I just feel like I can go for a couple hours and be happy and like enjoy my surroundings and and with the mission that we're trying to accomplish and everything that we wanted to incorporate with these young individuals, it seems like, hey, if I, if I am, like as a community member, looking for a place to go where I can be happy, these people are looking for the same thing, like let's bring it together.
Speaker 3:So it kind of it starts around a restaurant, but then you put in all these other pieces, like these events and different fun ways to engage people, and I think it all can center around just the place that puts out good food and happy vibes.
Speaker 2:You know, you said the word community a few times so far Sure, dad, and not many people either have communities or even know where to find. I have a lot of clients who, like they, say again, again, I wish I had a community, I wish I had a community.
Speaker 1:And you know, we, we felt a part of a community Right.
Speaker 2:So can you this? Maybe I didn't expect to go here at all, but like when did you get a sense that, like you, were part of a community?
Speaker 3:Personally, I think I got the sense back at Variety. I met so many amazing young people, so many parents, family members and it almost is like its own separate community of kind of the special needs world.
Speaker 2:But why is it a?
Speaker 3:community and not a job, I think, because everybody cares. You know, like it's when I was talking about Variety I talked about like those are my core group of friends still, and we just see things very similar. Like it's a group of people with similar visions, working to accomplish goals and tasks together, like being a team. So it's almost like I think that sounds like it.
Speaker 2:It sounds like the community is created by a group of people with a common mission or goal.
Speaker 1:And passion, right, and I'm just.
Speaker 2:I'm thinking out loud and like trying to chew this up for myself, but I think that's what a lot of people are missing, like even if they have a, they maybe don't have passion themselves as individuals.
Speaker 1:Or For like anything in particular, right yeah.
Speaker 2:Or they don't have a group of people that share that passion with them. Yeah, and I think when you are someone with passion that is shared with others, you can kind of like differentiate your job and how to accomplish the goals of that passion. Like you differentiate, and then you all feel part of the same thing, even if you're doing different jobs within that group. Exactly, wow.
Speaker 3:And it's something like as humans. That's awesome. I think we all like it's one of the biggest things I'm sure so many people yearn and just want.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And then when we when I have it or you have it, it's something that we've come to like, appreciate almost as secondhand. But then you see other people that don't have it and you're like, wow, we got to find a way to become part of the same community because, like, why should I have it, but somebody else shouldn't? And it's such, like a human, I feel like a need almost Just to have like this outletting group of people that you see things the same way and you get to interact with on a common basis.
Speaker 1:And joy is contagious. And you brought something up about the restaurant. Happy vibes, right, and really when you go to a restaurant, it's like most people are really enjoying themselves.
Speaker 1:They're happy and those vibes, as you say, and I say too, you can feel that it's contagious. And so you basically took how you felt at the Variety Club, feeling a part of this community, where you guys all had this like collective passion and this like sense of community, this feeling of community, and then you basically like took this, the restaurant concept of like being happy a part of this, you know, like going to someplace that makes you happy, brings joy to people People love good food, you know and like you married the two of them almost Well, not just you but you and the co-founder. So much to give right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, that's exactly it. That's the goal just bring a lot of things that people love together and hopefully it's more enjoyable.
Speaker 1:Wow, this is great.
Speaker 2:All right, you have Variety. You have in the back of your head the idea that one day you want to start a restaurant with this goal in mind, like an include Well, because you had this business plan from college Right, right, yeah. So what were the steps to taking it from dream to reality?
Speaker 3:I think it was just good fortune. Okay so yeah, we had the idea.
Speaker 1:I don't think it was just good fortune. Like it was maybe like Go ahead tell your story.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, we kind of like again.
Speaker 1:it resonated in the back of my head and you make these little steps, so how'd you meet these two?
Speaker 3:gals. So, maureen, we've known each other since that first classroom teaching she has a son with autism and he was in that classroom that I was teacher for. So that relationship started way back when. And then, after I moved to that second classroom, I started working for him as like a one-to-one through a different company, because I wasn't his teacher anymore.
Speaker 1:So we just naturally so you guys must have had a really good relationship. Yeah, no, you trusted him.
Speaker 3:I got along with Nick really well. That's her son, and then I think she just obviously appreciated that and then we all got close. So, yeah, we just we worked together again for the next eight years. And that first year, after I moved to the second the room, we kind of made this deal like, hey, I'm gonna work with you guys until 21,. Nick turns 21. And that's like a big milestone for a lot of young adults with IEP or disability, just because that's when you lose a lot of your services that you've had for the last 21 years of your life since entering the school system.
Speaker 2:It doesn't sound like a milestone, it sounds like a terrifying moment.
Speaker 3:Very true. A milestone is not the right one.
Speaker 1:No, it's okay, I didn't mean to no, but that's a really really important distinction, because it is a scary moment I think I can't imagine Terrifying.
Speaker 2:Like in the country at large you hear people talk about like oh my God, I'm gonna turn 26 and lose my health insurance Exactly, except this feels like way more consequential than that. Yeah.
Speaker 3:It's like a kind of you've come to know a certain way of life and receive these services that are just given to you because you're a student with an IEP for about 18, 19 years of your life and then all of a sudden you turn a certain age and they're essentially gone and you have to learn a whole new system, because the two systems don't really connect too well and it's almost starting from scratch. And for a lot of parents I can't even imagine personally being in that situation. I've heard it from so many, including Maureen, but it's just something that you kind of have to come to grips with and you learn how to move forward with whatever stage is next.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:So yeah, we had known each other for eight years, and what?
Speaker 1:an amazing commitment you made to Nick. I just wanna like just point that out.
Speaker 3:Thank you. No, that's one of my proudest things I think Outside of like professional stuff. I really am so grateful that we kind of had that relationship where they trusted me and I trusted them and it was something that we were able to do for this amazing young man together and he's come so far in the eight years that I've known him.
Speaker 1:You know, your early 20s is such a transformative time, right, and so much can happen. So many things like to even you, you know. Like from one year to the next you're like I really wanna be a teacher. And then you're like, meh, you know, and for you to it just speaks to the bond it sounds like that you have with Nick. For you to be like, okay, you got eight years, like you're this young guy and you don't know what life is gonna happen, but you're like this is something I'm going to. I just you know this person, this is a really important relationship. Yeah, I just then. That really is incredible.
Speaker 3:Definitely. I think it was one of those. I'm sure we'll get there more down the road, but, like one of those things that you just know in your heart and your head, it has to happen that way and when I I'm gonna cry yeah first, I actually don't wanna do it down the road.
Speaker 1:I wanna tell her right now, right now.
Speaker 2:What's that moment like? Because you know not that I remember so well, but like I think part of the like definition of diagnosis of autism are people who have, like, difficulty connecting in social situations or they themselves miss social cues. They don't know how to present this. The themselves like physically, the way they're experiencing something emotionally, and there can be a disconnect there. And so how did you know you were connected with someone?
Speaker 1:who's like, who experiences?
Speaker 2:social interactions so much more differently than than you and us yeah.
Speaker 3:That's a great question. I think it was probably a little mix of just Nick being a really special young dude and me kind of being in my first classroom and trying to figure it out, like I. Like you said, I was in that kind of like early 20s. You're figuring yourself out and you, you see this young man who has so much to give and he's also figuring it out, and now you kind of form this bond together where you're just gonna do it and you're gonna figure stuff out together.
Speaker 2:But you could have had-, but that can bring tension onto someone. You know that can make someone feel frustrated or alienated, but it made you feel more connected. So what were the moments like when you realized you were connecting with Nick?
Speaker 3:Probably just progression throughout the year. Nick would like accomplish this goal and it would be this big thing.
Speaker 2:Like he would celebrate what's a goal?
Speaker 3:Something as simple as just walking through the hallways. My man used to run. He was a track star and we would go outside on the tennis courts. We would train for special Olympics all the time. He wouldn't run. What would he do? He would run through the hallways.
Speaker 3:Like it was his job and we'd be chasing him just making sure he didn't get into any trouble or hurt himself. And then the one time we wanted him to run and he could fly, he just didn't wanna do it. So we're trying to make that transition Like stop running in the hallways.
Speaker 1:We're not gonna get anybody.
Speaker 3:We're not gonna run anybody over, we're gonna save the running for the tennis courts. And towards the end of the year he started to really focus on just walking in the hallways. It was just clicking. And then at one time it was one of our very last special Olympics training sessions and he booked it, ran, blew everybody out of the water and it was just really cool to see because it was like something that we were working on the whole year and that was just one example for him. Like he made so much growth, I don't wanna like marginalize it with this one thing no, no, no.
Speaker 2:It's an example, it's an example.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 3:And those are like the little victories, like something as simple as walking through a hallway and then learning to like transfer, the act of running, which was something he physically needed to do, and it's not something that's very difficult for most people, like you just learned, like I gotta walk in the hallways you know, and you can do it.
Speaker 3:His body like it's just different. He kind of has this physical input, sensory input, where he needs to move, and it was something he had to work really hard on and he did it and it was cool and you got that.
Speaker 1:you know Like there was something about like again I keep going back to this like relationship and how you know like how important the relationship or the bond was for the two of you.
Speaker 2:What allows for you?
Speaker 3:to be so patient.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a great question, that is a good question.
Speaker 3:I don't know. I don't know, I'm not like super, super great at anything, like not a math whiz. I was never a superstar athlete, but I think that was just one thing that was ingrained in me. I guess a little bit of biology and then part like parenting, nature, nurture debate, do you remember?
Speaker 2:anything from your parents of like teaching you patience throughout your childhood.
Speaker 3:I don't know specifically patience, but I would say more about viewing things from like a Empathy standpoint, just trying to learn how to put yourself in other people's shoes. My mom would say that to me all the time and then, once you kind of focus on that, I think it gradually gives you like this Skill of being patient, because you are taking the time to understand.
Speaker 3:I guess how somebody is feeling and then when you take that time, it's like okay, and maybe I understand it, maybe I don't, but either way I should be more patient because if I'm understanding it the way I might be perceiving it, maybe that's something that person's struggling with and you know we all have our own struggles. What do your parents do for a living? My mom's a physical therapist. There's other ways to help people. Yeah, my dad, he, he works with computers, fixes like different techy stuff that I don't know anything about.
Speaker 1:So, so let's go back to. Let's go back to so much to give cafe. So you have this plan, this we you shared how you met Maureen. Okay, now we know, but keep going with the story.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So this is kind of where it was just this Kind of almost divine thing and it all fell together. About a year ago Maureen had met this woman named Kathy who owned her own nonprofit called Pillars of Light and Love, and she started that probably eight years ago and me and Maureen first met and we didn't. We didn't know Kathy then, and she started that primarily just to provide support groups for people going through different things. Kathy's whole goal behind Pillars what I've come to learn in the year that I've known her was just when you see a need in the community, she tries her best to be a part of a solution.
Speaker 1:So yeah, she's amazing woman, very special kind of person it was super special.
Speaker 3:Those two women. I give so much credit to they. They move mountains. It's really an honor to know them.
Speaker 1:Do you feel like you move mountains?
Speaker 3:I feel like now, like Kind of getting to that place where I can't wait till the time.
Speaker 1:I ask you this and you just say yes.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, maureen meets Kathy. I honestly don't even know how and she was. Kathy was talking about starting a restaurant. So Maureen's like hey, you got to meet my friend Tyler. How did Kathy get to do?
Speaker 1:it Totally so. Where was it when she saw a need then? In the community or not?
Speaker 3:So her Maureen had started talking about so much to give as a program.
Speaker 3:Okay, that was just like once. So we did this for a year before the restaurant opened, so two years back and once a month we would meet about ten kids in one of Kathy's Locations at she owns, where they held the support groups, and we would go there in a free session and Nick would then get to Socialize with different friends because Maureen was exploring what was gonna happen when he graduated a year from then. So we were like starting starting something. We didn't know what it was. I would go with Nick because that was my job, is his one-to-one, and we were doing it together.
Speaker 3:And then eventually, I guess Maureen and Kathy were talking one day and Kathy was like I really want to start a restaurant. And that's when she, I think, brought me up. It was like, hey, my friend Ty, he's told me about this restaurant idea he had from a while back. Like you should meet him. And then she came out to a restaurant that I was working at because I was just trying to learn the game, like I had never worked in a restaurant. I worked on the farm.
Speaker 1:So on your own, you're like already trying to. So yeah, because we you didn't mention that part yet that like. So After the variety club, you then took a job at a restaurant, because it sounds like you were trying to then cultivate that, that, that that dream.
Speaker 3:This is it was a really weird spot for me, because I was still at the variety club, oh that was my job. I wasn't unhappy. It was still like really, really impressed with the work we were doing. We were growing a program. We got through COVID and I don't know. Something about me was like you know what. I still have this idea in the back of my head I'm gonna start working at a restaurant part, get extra cash, part to learn the game. And I was doing that for about six months before I met Kathy.
Speaker 1:Were you waiting tables? Yeah, yeah, serving.
Speaker 3:I'm. It's like a sports bar, so eventually I wanted to get to bartending, but I'd learned how to do the other stuff.
Speaker 1:There's never got there.
Speaker 3:Okay. But uh, yeah, and then all of a sudden one day, maureen like texts me and she's like yo, you got to meet this Kathy lady and I was like cool, like why. She's like well, she wants to start a restaurant and she really likes the idea that you have. So she actually came the time out one night with her husband and that was the first time I met her and they like requested me and served their table and she was like you want to start a restaurant and I was like yeah, like who are you? Yeah, I'm getting the chills. It was so cool. It was like this really informal thing. She's like we should talk more, like I want to do it. I know, maureen, I know what they're doing over there. And this is this awesome idea that I think if the three of us sit down, we can really like formulate into something that starts and that was the start of it all.
Speaker 1:What did you do after you finished your shift that night?
Speaker 3:I texted Maureen. I said she's a little wild, she's just gonna do it. I can see it like she. There was not even a hesitation. She.
Speaker 1:Like, though, like what was it like she has this conversation? She's wild. Your texting, maureen, you get off your shit.
Speaker 2:I say it's a while we're gonna say deeply passionate.
Speaker 3:Oh, deeply passionate. It like crosses the line, like no she's not.
Speaker 1:The great, great, great clarification.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you guys got to meet Maureen and Kathy to understand the way it just forces that almost don't make sense, like you say, while, but it's like wild in this amazing way.
Speaker 1:Wow, okay, so we can stick with wild. Yeah, sounds like she's wild, okay so. So what did it feel like when you got off your shift? Like where you like, what the heck just happened.
Speaker 3:So I'm like feeling pure bliss. I'm like this is, this is what I've been waiting for. I don't know how it happened, I don't know what's gonna happen next, but I know we have to talk. So eventually we all sit down and we start like really mapping it out. I share everything I have. Maureen gives her input and how it can relate to so much to give. Kathy tells us what she can bring and it was just all meshing. It was just there. There wasn't like a question unanswered, there wasn't a stone unturned, and we just decided in that moment we were gonna go for it.
Speaker 1:Did you shake hands? Like what I don't understand. Like what? Like what does that look like?
Speaker 3:It looked like a happiness. We didn't shake hands. It wasn't professional, it's. It's all of you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's. It sounds like all of you have had the same drive and Similar goals and it just meshed immediately because it was like an immediate community, like we spoke about community earlier. Yeah, a group of people like passionate about one thing.
Speaker 3:That's it. That's that's what I've learned most about life. Like everything that I've talked about personally and then I've Shared with other people from their experiences, it comes down to like a shared vision Just people coming together with a goal, with a passion, and then almost anything can happen. You see these wild things happen, amazing things, and now I get to be a part of it in my own life. But you see it happening everywhere. It just takes people coming together With that shared goal.
Speaker 2:It sounds like I'm just again just think about the people who want to be part of a community. They're like, yeah, really, I think a lot of that desire to be part of community is like I don't want to be lonely, I don't want to feel alone, but it sounds like an answer to find community is to just find that passion within yourself and then join with the other people who have a similar idea. It's such a great point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, my god, I love that yeah what is the cafe look like on a day-to-day basis? Can we? Is it alright if we? I don't know how many steps we were jumping, but like you go from this meeting, you're aligned Can we? Can we jump like what the cafe looks like on a day-to-day? Who's employed? What does it look like? Is that our icon?
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh my god yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna re ask the questions I can like edit all that mumbling out. So so, tyler, let's skip from the, the meeting where you're all aligned with one another. This is where you're going. You felt instant community with these women. How Does so much to give you a fair look? Today, based off of that, meeting Looks different every day.
Speaker 3:Okay, great you. It's very. This is like the one constant I carried over from teaching. You never know what you're gonna get. Some people might be having great days, some people might be having off days. You might be busy, you might be slow. Transferable skill yeah, yeah, it's just flexibility, nonstop okay. But we have about 60 to 70 different employees Wow.
Speaker 1:That is way. Oh, I thought I thought it was six to seven.
Speaker 2:Yeah no 60 to 70s way more than I expected.
Speaker 3:One of the things we're most proud about. Yeah, it it's kind of the. The whole point of the mission is we wanted to immerse as many people in this thing together and then bring the community to it. So, yeah, we have different people pretty much work in every day. Some people work one shift a week, some people work three or four, totally depending on when they're at, what they are hoping to accomplish.
Speaker 3:Exactly their own dreams, and that's that's what I really like about it too. Like there are a lot of places you go and you know they.
Speaker 3:They want you to fit into the mold of what their workplace brings, and that's kind of how life operates in different ways. A job's looking to hire somebody on a Friday, tuesday and Saturday shift and that's what they need. That's, that's the only thing they're gonna acknowledge. We're a little different in that degree where somebody comes to me in an interview. They're like, hey, I can work one day a week, I just want two hours. I'm learning and that's what I did it. Right, I was all learning those skills together. So we have kind of morphed the restaurant around, making sure that we're fitting into the employees coming in, and that's probably one of the Things that that really separates us from a lot of other Organizations and businesses.
Speaker 2:I know every day is different. Yes, what Make make an image of a composite day like? What could a day, a normal day, look like? Who's coming in, what are they doing, what's?
Speaker 1:going on. What are you yeah?
Speaker 3:I'm gonna get hungry.
Speaker 1:Who's last?
Speaker 3:But no, I think we've kind of learned our niche of like, when we're busier, like we're a really big brunch crowd, okay, so I'd say, between about 9, 30 and 1 o'clock on a weekend, we'll be busy serve alcohol. We do not, we are BYOB so a lot of people bring that for evenings and stuff, but we don't have a alcohol permit.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, we've kind of learned our niche for when we should expect to be busy, so we bring a little bit of extra help. But the whole thing I think you'll see as a customer about what the restaurant looks like is just supporting people. We're not Always like perfect Obviously Nobody's perfect but we are always looking to grow together. So, whereas we might mess this one thing up about an order, we'll fix it right away. And the cool thing about the restaurant is all the tables are very close. It's almost like this homey kind of old-fashioned building. You got tables next to each other. A lot of people are talking kind of about what they're seeing, talking about their server, what they learned interacting with the servers or food runners, the hosts, and then they're seeing, like how we're growing together. We drop things, we, we forget things and people talk together. It's not like when I go to restaurants again. It's like this happy experience but it's more about like me, the people I'm with the atmosphere and then my server.
Speaker 1:You know it's like this Like a little bit. It's like a little insular right like it's sort of like you're just at your own table and you maybe you might look at other tables and yeah, observe, but this sounds much more communal. Yes, like a cafeteria.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, kind of you have tables across talking and you see people interacting and getting up and Discussing the mission, discussing other parts of life, discussing who they met that day, and then you see them come back and they kind of get somebody else involved because they experienced it and that's probably my favorite thing to see. There is just everybody interacting around. What the purpose of?
Speaker 2:being there is. So I don't know the language to ask my question like Appropriately or directly, so I'm just gonna flub it and if shooting give me terrible edit it right now. I want to leave it in on purpose, but here's the thing. I have never been to the cafe. I Don't know what it's like to. I watch some videos and stuff like that, but like, what are the disabled individuals doing in at the cafe?
Speaker 1:the, the individuals who have different and varying abilities. Yes, yeah, that's right. Everything person first language. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So we have five or six different positions, and we have people who have told me that they do have a diagnosed disability, and then I have people that haven't or don't have a disability, sure, and we all work in the same position. So I have hosts, I have food runners, dishwashers, servers and prep cooks and line cooks, all of which either do have a disability or don't have a disability but, every position is filled with somebody from both sides of that coin and and we're working together to accomplish all those jobs.
Speaker 3:So a food runner pretty much you're navigating the restaurant and if your skill set is being quick, getting upstairs, getting food to the table on time, recognizing a ticket, you're gonna be a food runner. If your job or if your skill set is customer service and you're somebody who loves talking to people and I have so many guys who love to meet new people yeah, they're gonna be a server or host and they are gonna chat you up and you're gonna learn a lot about them, and they're gonna learn a lot about you, yeah my dishwashers Primarily people who like being more to themselves and like focusing on on kind of repetitive tasks.
Speaker 3:They're gonna be back there and you won't see them as much, but they are gonna be doing their job, they're gonna be doing it very well and they're gonna be getting those dishes clean. So it's. It's a little bit of everything that you would see in any restaurant, just Geared toward each person and their specific abilities. I don't know if I answered it Absolutely gives you a glimpse.
Speaker 1:No, absolutely did what can I ask you a question? What You're now? I don't want this. You know I don't want to emphasize your age too much. You know you're 32 now.
Speaker 3:Oh, 30, 30.
Speaker 1:Why did I say 32? Okay, sorry, what I want to? I really want to know so far, because this is such a new endeavor, right? What have you learned about yourself in all of this?
Speaker 3:That's a great question. I don't think I fully Processed everything about myself since we've started.
Speaker 1:I do right now Get into it.
Speaker 3:I have that. Something that I know I've learned is that while you're, while you're kind of accomplishing this passion for myself of Helping others and contributing and impacting to people outside of myself, I've learned that there's also a way to be helping yourself along the way. I Was not as great at that. Earlier on in my 20s, I was really focused on just my passion was helping other people, and if I wasn't helping somebody and I didn't see that I was helping Somebody it like affected myself. And that was kind of bouncing back to that second year of teaching. I was questioning my abilities, I didn't know if I was doing the right thing and then eventually, like got out of teaching and I think it was partly like my own personal Choice, like I knew it wasn't the right fit, but I was also doubting myself. And now I've kind of come to this point where it's like, hey, maybe I didn't do everything correctly, even though I'm much more we get that you couldn't do everything correctly, right, because life, you know, isn't about making every correct move.
Speaker 3:Exactly, you're learning from yeah, learning from your mistakes. So when I, when I mess up now and and when I do something that I necessarily wouldn't have chose to do again, I'm finding ways to not only correct that but, like be comfortable and help myself, I guess, grow and do things that are more important to me along the way.
Speaker 1:I'm not explaining this.
Speaker 2:Well, I guess, no, you're actually. Give and receive simultaneous.
Speaker 3:That's what I was gonna say a lot, of, a lot of what we talk about here.
Speaker 1:With a lot of our guests has, is it comes down to a lot, you know, this idea of giving and receiving. Giving and receiving have and striking a harmony in that and I think a lot of us, you know, part of Learning from life is learning what that, what that harmony feels like, and it sounds like that's, that's a big. That's kind of where you are right now on your on your own path.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, I feel like I've kind of checked that box now. On my own personal journey, I've learned how to navigate, pursuing my passion of helping people while also pursuing this individual need to Get on the right path and keep going towards your own goals and making sure that you're okay with the choices that you're making.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's sustainability, like without that it just can't. You're not happy. We can take this out if you'd like, but I'm really interested in the economics of the restaurant and how much are you paying your employees? Is the restaurant profitable, like are you able to make a living, or the other individuals may able to make a living, like what's going on over there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, great question. It's um, it's a nonprofit, so you know nobody's making like sure super great money.
Speaker 2:Sure, but just able to live like yeah, no I, I'm happy with where I'm at.
Speaker 3:I know everybody else who's kind of Administrative level, I guess is happy like we are all bought in and I don't think money ever comes down to it. Salary wise, all of our employees, which we're most proud about, are getting paid above minimum wage. Wow, mostly, everybody, um, mostly everybody.
Speaker 2:What does that mean for someone who you know like differently able, disabled?
Speaker 1:Yeah, who like graduates essentially from this, you know, at 21. There's like what's next? And Typically it's not. There's not a whole lot, of, whole lot of opportunity and now there is, yeah, what, what? What is that like for them?
Speaker 3:That's a great question and I I have these conversations sometimes with individuals and parents and I don't without like getting into somebody's own personal like what they're trying to do or what they're trying to make. At the end Of the day, I think the important part is that we're contributing towards something as a job value.
Speaker 3:Yeah it's not always Um easy for for some of these guys to go find jobs that are sustainable, and you'll see different stories about people like moving from one job to the next or not being happy at a job, um, but what I have seen here is everybody loves coming to work.
Speaker 3:Um, we have been here for almost a year and that's a good amount of time for some people, um, so I'll just come out and say, like everybody pretty much averages about $10 an hour Um, which we hope to get higher as the restaurant may becomes more sustainable, but it's something that I think people can take home and be proud of and, you know, even like getting that paycheck where it is what it is, and you might be able to buy this or save up over time and buy something a Little larger. I think being able to produce your own money and then like go buy yeah, maybe your mother or president or your brother, and do that for yourself because you worked. That is something that I know a lot of these individuals, uh, it doesn't get better for like it's almost like you can feel the pride.
Speaker 3:Yes, in it.
Speaker 1:Wow. And again this idea of like Sharing that experience. It's like it just seems like this is an environment where everybody just is Getting to share in one another's joys.
Speaker 2:You know it's. I hear, you hear so many people saying like no one wants to work these days and like post covid, there's like a big slump and like there's job opportunities in the oh and especially, do you remember, in within the restaurant industry.
Speaker 1:Actually there's like a you know, the tremendous shortage of Of staffing in, especially in heat in the city in restaurants.
Speaker 3:That's, um, that's something we probably won't ever have a problem with. There's, uh, so many different restaurants I've seen that are always hiring, like different servers, bartenders.
Speaker 1:Um, going into this, we knew guess who, guess who these restaurants are not hiring? Yeah and shame on them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no there's a lot of people that you can, um find willing to be amazing employees with so much to give. If you just maybe tweak a thing here there, make it more accessible, um, and we're we're super proud of that. But we also we're very Passionate about trying to get more people in the door, and we we almost have we not almost we have a waiting list of people For each position that we want to eventually get in the door as soon as we can Produce a little bit more income.
Speaker 1:Wow. So you told you tell us your story of how, how you, how we, how we got to so much to give, um, but what is interesting is that, with how you got there, how you got to even just like teaching, working with people with special needs, all these different things, like it's just something that just inspired you. It's not necessarily that like. I mean, I guess I'm asking you, is there anybody that, like you, grew up with or or anything like that, that like that, you knew that had special needs, or that inspired you, or is it just something that you just found like a gravitational pull toward?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it was just kind of natural Again that early, like kind of high school, I knew I wanted to teach. I would go with my godmom on the off-school days and kind of be in special ed classrooms. So that was always something I was interested in. And then I think when I got to Variety for the first time during that like college volunteer work, that's when I knew like this is something I'm passionate about.
Speaker 3:As I progressed through like 1920, went back when I left teaching I was in those early 20s and what really stuck out to me was, you know, like you're a 21-22 year old kid and you're working on your goals and being professional and growing your career path.
Speaker 3:But I also was 22, like I wanted to go meet girls, I wanted to go drink, I wanted to have fun and I was doing that and it was great for me. And then I'd go and work at Variety for a summer or do an overnight camp and I'd have a kid or not a kid, like a young adult who was 22-23, right there with me and I'd be like what'd you do this weekend? And you would be like I played on my laptop, I watched YouTube. Like that sucks, like I know he wants to go meet a girl. He told me he wants to go meet a girl but it's not accessible. So that was kind of where it clicked for me, like I was going through something and people my age were also trying to figure it out. But it was more accessible for me and I was like you know what? We can fix this, we can find a way, and that kind of always propelled me to working with young adults.
Speaker 1:My mouth is like a gap, like just that dialogue between you and this person of like that sucks, dude, I know you want to meet girl.
Speaker 2:That is so humanizing.
Speaker 1:So, like I just think, that is a quality about you that is, I think, just amazing.
Speaker 2:That's what I want to learn from myself more.
Speaker 1:I strive for it.
Speaker 2:Me too, but what you helped me see is how there's so much further to go of like really what it means to look at every, every person as a person. You know, and I try to do that. I'm not like I try to do that as much as I can. I don't think I'm like overly prejudiced or bigoted or anything like that, but just to see the level that someone can be on is like I'm gonna humanize you to the level of like. You want literally the same things as I do.
Speaker 1:Well, it's not. It doesn't even sound. I think what makes you so unique, tyler, is that it doesn't even sound like it was even that intentional of a thought. It was that there was a moment that you had that's kind of intangible, that you felt like he and I, and I think that's that is a version of empathy. This person and I are experiencing the exact same thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you could feel that and and it's then what, what you, what you've done with that is, you've turned that into you, maureen and Kathy, just so much to give cafe and I, just that is talk about a slew of intuitive choices.
Speaker 2:I just hope that all the the givers out there who know that they are inherently givers to such a degree can embody how you can give, even more so if you already know how to set up a sustainable system for yourself, which is what you you're doing. That's a big that's a big takeaway for me. Yeah.
Speaker 3:No, I really love what you guys are doing here, this podcast, the idea behind it and just following kind of your intuition and seeing how not only it impacts yourself but other people. It's, it's everything like it's. It's what we're trying to do here. It's again purpose and trying to find that and take steps towards that every day. Part of what really really got me excited after we had talked originally and I listened to your episode, kim is you are inspiring too.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 3:Hearing about, like some of the choices you had to make with I think it's RP.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, right now, it is fantastic yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the personal choices you had to make behind yourself and wanting, like your goals of a family. It's. It's what I strive to kind of help people with every day, and you've almost mastered it by yourself from from a young age. So, just getting to have these conversations with people who are open to talking about it, it's awesome to just be a part of something that hopefully inspires other people. So definitely give this thing a listen. While you're doing it, drive to the cafe. Where is the cafe?
Speaker 1:Give us the address and give us all your social media where everybody can find you Awesome.
Speaker 3:So it's right in the heart of Skip Back. It's a 3401 West Skip Back Pike. We're on the corner of Skip Back and Bustard Road. It's a little shopping center. There's a pizza shop in there. There's an antique barn, so a little bit of shopping you can do. There's a spa, so it's this nice little area. Social medias you can follow us on Instagram or Facebook at so much to give inclusive cafe. We just started a TikTok, so hopefully we're gonna get some cool content and you guys can see a little bit of behind scenes.
Speaker 1:What happens at the cafe.
Speaker 3:A lot of bloopers, a lot of fun stuff.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 3:It's not all business and work.
Speaker 1:That's great.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, it's been a pleasure guys.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, so, so grateful to have met you and we're just gonna keep. I want to be your friend.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was actually not the same.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay, it doesn't come out the trivial We'll play together. I'm gonna actually remember my kids out.
Speaker 1:I live in yeah, I live local, so yeah, yeah, yeah, alright, thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Thank you, guys. Thank you. We want to thank you so much for listening to today's episode. If anything in today's episode spoke to you, please like, subscribe, rate and review. Also, don't forget to share this podcast with friends and family.
Speaker 1:And if there's anybody that you know that you think would be a great guest on intuitive choices, please email us at intuitivechoicespodcast at gmailcom. Finally, if you want to know more about our mental health practice, intuitive counseling and wellness, please check us out at intuitivecounselingofphillycom.