Cakeable Charlotte, a nonprofit that provides job training and future employment opportunities to individuals with intellectual and physical disabilities, is getting ready to open a brick-and-mortar in Charlotte, located at 401 North Tryon St.
The nonprofit organization was spotlighted in 2021 when CharlotteFive reported on the company that helps put individuals with special needs in the workforce. Since then, the company has taken great strides, especially with the community’s help, to open a brick-and-mortar cafe so owners Renee and John Ratcliffe can continue to help the neighborhood. Cakeable Charlotte expects to open in Spring 2024.
The Ratcliffes have been working hard to get the new community-focused cafe up and running, but the process has been streamlined with the help of the North Carolina business. After the CharlotteFive article was published, someone sent the article to the founders of Moji Coffee + More, who joined Bakeable Charlotte’s board and provided Cakeable Charlotte with the space on North Tryon, which was donated by Bank of America, which was donated for five years, along with additional funding in place.
Cakeable also secured a $810,000 grant from Mecklenburg County. In addition, the funding includes $150,000 from food service company Compass Group and its subsidiary Canteen to cover equipment, upfitting costs, and the first-year salary for a cafe manager. Finally, Charlotte-based architect John Fuller of Fuller Architecture in Mocksville is also donating his time to help design the space. Until the new space opens, Cakeable will continue to train ten individuals at its bakery kitchen, which recently moved to a more prominent location within Sweet Spot Studio.
“We want you to train with us, we want you to be successful, and we feel like we will have a bigger impact on the community if we can help give you those skills and then place you in the community,” Renee Radcliffe tells Charlotte Observer. “One of our trainees works at Harris Teeter, another is doing an internship at Novant Hospital, and another uses her skills to volunteer at another bakery. With the skills they gain at Cakeable, they are really finding out how to be successful in other areas of our community.”
