Tucked away in a nondescript bank building in Uptown Charlotte, North Carolina, is a cafe like no other. Founded by Marsh McLennan Agency (MMA) Client Executive John Ratcliffe and his wife, Renee, Cakeable Cafe’s mission is two-fold: it provides patrons with gourmet coffee and delectable freshly baked pastries and also helps bridge the employment gap for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In 2019, the couple launched Cakeable as a nonprofit workforce development program focused on baking, then opened the Cakeable Cafe and its associated barista training program earlier this year.
“I worked as a special education teacher for several years, and had a baking hobby on the side,” says Renee. “We were getting to know families who have children who live with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and hearing their stories made us aware that so many of their opportunities evaporate once they get out of the school system. I was thinking about using baking to make some kind of local impact, and started thinking that baking skills are employable skills—if I could teach someone baking skills, then perhaps we could help them take steps toward employment or some kind of meaningful interaction out in the community.”
Cakeable began with three bakery interns and has steadily grown to about 50 between the bakery and cafe programs. They come from Charlotte and the surrounding areas and range in age from 18 to 60. Each internship lasts three to six months and focuses on hard skills—baking, coffee making, cashiering, and customer service—plus soft skills, like teamwork, confidence, and professionalism, that will serve them well wherever they go.
Career placement assistance is available for Cakeable graduates, and grads have gone on to work in coffee shops around Charlotte, a coffee bar inside a bank, and maintaining the physicians’ lounge at a local hospital. Others have gone on to community college.
“In North Carolina, 80% of individuals who live with a disability are unemployed. What we’re trying to do is create opportunities,” says John. “We invest in people with disabilities and say, ‘You have skills that are valued in the community; we just need to bring those skills to the surface. Your disability doesn’t mean you don’t have abilities.’”