Bradley’s coffee shop, Love A Latte Coffee, offers its customers plenty of delicious drinks and tasty treats. However, its primary goal isn’t as simple as providing a hot cup of coffee, though that is a perk for those who drive through. Love A Latte Coffee is a nonprofit organization that aims to provide job skills training for adults with special needs.
“One of the things people don’t always understand is that we are a coffee shop, but really, we’re a training program. The training program is disguised as a coffee shop,” explained Jennifer Carroll, one of the directors of Love A Latte Coffee.
The coffee shop is staffed by interns, who work alongside trained volunteers. The volunteers help teach and guide interns in money management, customer service, and food and beverage preparation. The idea is that those learned transferable skills could provide interns with more options for work in the future.
“My co-director and I are both special education teachers, and we realized a lot of our students, upon graduating from high school, had very limited options,” Carroll explained as to why she and co-director Lori Grzelak wanted to launch the program.
Anna Werner, 22, has been in the program for about four years and has learned many valuable skills, including following directions and making different drinks.
“I have to make the drinks, and how many pumps to be put in the coffee and sometimes refreshers, too,” Werner said of her work.
Her favorite drink to make (and enjoy), however, is a frozen hot chocolate, a unique sweet drink. Werner was excited to explain some of the tasks she completes in a typical shift.
“If they give us money, we put it in the cash box, give change, and run credit cards,” Werner said before adding, “Smiles are free!”
Carroll and Grzelak have dedicated their entire careers to special education, and both still work in special education in Kankakee. They help train the volunteers, so they can provide individualized attention to the interns as their abilities vary.
“All volunteers have to be food-certified through the health department. It’s a commitment. It’s really wonderful,” Carroll said of the coffee shop’s volunteers.
Because Love a Latte Coffee is a non-profit organization, formally “Lovealatte Coffee Treats And Sweet Eats Prepared By Special People,” its board of directors has a say in its operations. Several board members have special education backgrounds or are family members of special needs adults. Together, they worked to create a program that works for the interns and that volunteers, once trained, can facilitate.
“We had seen on social media an ad for this type of program, and we thought it would be really fun and great for our community. We decided to give it a go, and that was in 2018!” Carroll said.
Originally, Love A Latte Coffee began as a humble pop-up coffee stop at events, operating out of a tent. They outgrew the tent and were able to purchase a trailer, which they still use for special events, giving interns more opportunities to work.
The sky was the limit, though, as the program’s positive reception enabled them to move into the brick-and-mortar building on Broadway Street in Bradley this past summer.
“I have friends who work with me, and I’ve made a lot of friends by working here,” intern Jessica Knoll, 21, explained. She’s interned at the coffee shop for three years and has learned a lot. Her favorite drink to make is an iced latte.
Love A Latte Coffee’s directors prefer interns to work at least two shifts a month, but it may be more in the summer, as that is their busy season.
In fact, the coffee shop has been so successful and popular with interns there is a waiting list for interns to join the program. There is no tuition or fee to enroll. The only requirement is that interns must have graduated from high school with an IEP and enrolled in either a high school transition program or beyond for at least four years.
Overhead and operating costs are funded through coffee shop sales, some grant funding, but primarily through donations and fundraisers. Carroll explained their Bingo fundraiser, which will be happening on March 14, brings in a lot of funding for the organization.
The future is bright, as Carroll and Grzelak hope to retire from their day jobs and dedicate more time to the coffee shop. Carroll mused that one day, they hope to expand to create a sit-down coffee shop.
The menu features fresh-brewed hot and iced coffee, lattes, hot chocolate, frozen hot chocolate, iced refreshers with boba, and some sweet treats, like chocolate-dipped pretzels, hand-dipped by the interns.
“You name it, we’ve got it!” Carroll said, adding they hope to include more baked goods on the menu in the future.
Love A Latte Coffee sources its coffee beans from Connect Roasters – but that’s not all Connect Roasters has provided the nonprofit.
“Connect Roasters taught us everything we needed to know about a coffee business when we first started,” Caroll explained before adding, “Both Lori and I put in a lot of time behind the scenes, just with the business aspect of it, and we have so many volunteers who we are very appreciative of.”
If a patron can’t get enough of their coffee and wants to help support the Love A Latte Coffee mission, they can buy their beans or ground coffee through their website, lovealattecoffee.com. Better yet, drive through for a coffee and a free smile on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. The coffee shop is at 970 W. Broadway Street, Bradley.
Stephanie Irvine is a freelance reporter.
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