Cafe' Three21 COVID19 Summer of 2020

As all of you know, 2020 has been a hard year! Cafe' Three21 has also struggled in knowing how to get our baristas some training while keeping them safe. No easy feat giving the world today. 

My goal this summer is to give you a view into the lives of our precious baristas. We are going to be at Valleydale Farmer's Market this summer - July 18th as well as August 1st. We will be selling our Cafe' Three21 t-shirts as well as canned drinks to cool you down as you look at the produce and local artisans! 

Let me tell you about my heart for special needs students. It began a long time ago when I worked at a church in Mobile, AL. I have always had a heart for middle and high school kiddos, and that is where I started. My own church youth group. But while working at the church, I made friends with a man who had an intellectual disability. He was precious. But he was hard to understand and he made the people around him uncomfortable because he would walk up to you and just stand there. He might say, "hi" and then he would just stand there. It did not bother me at all. Ever. I found that he was sweet and helpful and just wanted some company. He would find me wherever I was. That was just the beginning. When I started subbing after quitting a job as a Provider Relations Coordinator at a local insurance company, I got many jobs in the Special Needs department at the local high school. I took to it immediately. 

What I found was that people that work with Special Needs individuals are amazing people. They have a huge capacity to love others. And their patience is endless. They have awesome problem solving skills and they know how to laugh - even when things are extremely difficult. So - at the age of 45 - I finally found my niche. The next year, I applied as a para educator at the high school and have been there ever since. That is 8 years now. And I love it. I really can't imagine doing anything else. I get to work with high school students as well as the special needs population and it is amazing. 

If you read the opening story, then you know that Cafe' Three21 was created out of a desire to find ways to give our students work experience and with a goal of eventually starting a company that hires these students so they have something waiting for them when they age out of the school system. Letting them work with the public and get used to having to be scheduled and work at specific times as well as job skills such as cleaning and serving drinks, folding t-shirts and packing into envelopes and applying mailing labels in invaluable to our students. This is our way of seeing it happen. 

We would love to hear of similar programs started in your area. 

Visit us on FB and Instagram @cafethree21

Also - if you would like to help fund our summer Cafe' here is our GoFundMe link: gf.me/u/ycutn4

God bless and keep you all! 

Our Story

My name is Missy Smith. I have worked with special needs students for almost 7 years. Tyler Coppock and I work in local high schools with special needs students in Shelby County, AL. It is pretty obvious that we love what we do. And how could we not? These students are the most amazing people to work with. We feel so strongly about it that we want to start a business with them.

About a year ago Tyler told me a dream of his was to start a restaurant and name it Three21. As a college student, he worked with the Down Syndrome population and loved how they were just who they were - no pretense, no fanfare. They were funny, genuine, caring and audacious. The idea was to make a place where all people with special needs could work and find what they needed to be successful. That means breaks when they are needed, as well as help with behavioral and medical issues. There are not many businesses that can employ some populations of special needs people because of these needs. He wanted a place that would. It would be a place where Autistic, Cerebral Palsy, any person with special needs could find a place to work and earn a wage. When he told me, I totally agreed. I had also noticed a problem when our students were aging out of the school system. There is not always a place for them to go once they age out of the public school system. 

I was reading some news online when I saw a cafe' opened for students with special needs. It was housed at a local farmers market in California. I immediately saw a place we could give Tyler's dream a shot. My church helped with a local farmers market and I immediately saw it would be a great place to start this project. So we signed up to be vendors at Valleydale Farmers Market, spread the word and were connected with a local company called Non-Fiction Coffee Co. Lisa Herron, the CEO and owner, immediately gave us advice and guidance as well as offering up her supplies and coffee to get us started. 

We had a venue, we had a product and we were well on our way! We opened on May 25, 2019. We serve cold brewed iced coffee, lemonade, tea, bottled water and sodas for people to sip as they shop at the farmers market. Two weekends in and we have been incredibly successful. The community has supported us and we have managed to pay our students as well as clear enough to put toward more supplies. We are now working on growing our business. We truly want it to become a full-time place where our students will come to work. There are infinite possibilities.

The coffee provided by Non-Fiction Coffee Co. is truly amazing. We serve the Peru blend for our cold brewed iced coffee and it is truly a special experience everyone should try at least once. We will also start offering the coffee for our farmers markets patrons to take home. 

Our hearts overflow with how God has blessed each step of the way and how people have rallied around these efforts. Our students are getting one on one experience, strengthening their communication skills as well as job skills, such as making change. Eventually we will show them how to set up, how to make the cold brew coffee and how to take down the tents at the farmers market. It really is all so very exciting! 

We encourage you to come out and visit us at Valleydale Farmers Market - Saturdays (weather allowing) at 4601 Valleydale Road from 8:00 - Noon. 

We look forward to seeing you!