This Coffee Shop is Changing the World!

A vibrant coffee shop providing meaningful employment for adults with disabilities, Esteamed Coffee was a delight to find on my vacation! I walked into the inviting café with a catchy name to discover that the staff were all adults with differing abilities, each welcoming customers, taking orders at the register, cleaning the tables, and working the espresso machines making exceptional drinks.

This was the friendliest coffee shop I have ever visited, and as I looked closer, I saw the sign that said this was no ordinary coffee locale, it was selling coffee for a cause. Esteamed Coffee is a non-profit aimed at reducing the 70% unemployment rate of adults with intellectual, developmental, communication, and/or visual disabilities. What a wonderful mission!

I stumbled upon Esteamed Coffee shop while visiting Downton Cary, North Carolina. The invigorated town, which recently built a fabulous outdoor community center, seems like the perfect spot for such a forward-thinking business.

What if more places like this popped up in ALL of our communities?

Esteamed is run by 15 persons with differing abilities, 16 artists with differing abilities have work on display and 30 volunteers work as mentors at the shop. Their co-founders have faced disabilities first-hand and felt motivated to create a work environment that helped adults with disabilities overcome obstacles by finding employment, training and fellowship.

Co-founder, Angie Hudson, lost her eyesight as a young adult and shares on their website esteamedcoffee.com:

“I know firsthand what it is like to live with a disability and how challenging it can be. Even though each individual has different obstacles they face, all those living with a disability have 3 general areas of life that are impacted: obtaining employment, adapting to a job, and social engagement. Esteamed Coffee’s mission is to address each of these obstacles by providing job coaching and a supportive/encouraging environment where the employees and patrons feel they are part of a warm, welcoming community.”

Not only is this a wonderfully welcoming shop to meet locals and enjoy delicious drinks, it's also a place where individuals with differing abilities gain valuable life skills, training, and meaningful employment. People with disabilities face a much lower employment rate than those without, and recent data shows that the number of individuals with disabilities is on the rise. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, the percentage of people with disabilities in the U.S. increased to 13% of the population in 2023.

Kudos to Esteamed Coffee and its visionary leaders! I would love to see more shops pop up with their mission to serve a needed sector in our community. Their mission states:

“We envision a world where adults with disabilities have access to meaningful work and social opportunities while being respected, represented, and fully integrated in every local community.”

Instead of heading to the massive chain for a coffee, I wish I could frequent more places like this in my own community: places that strive to connect neighbors; that offer opportunities to adults with differing abilities while providing inclusive locations to gather and get to know your community and its members of all abilities.

You can support Esteamed Coffee’s mission by visiting them in Cary, NC, ordering their coffee beans online or donating to their 501(c)(3). Visit: https://www.esteamedcoffee.com/

---

Hi - I'm Susan Terese and I work with Juli at In Our Arms Blog. I live in San Antonio, TX with my husband and three kids. We visited Downtown Cary, NC over the holiday and loved their vibrant, forward-thinking yet historic downtown!