Bunny Bakes

Bunny Bakes responds to a lack of work and vocational training opportunities for people with disabilities. As a way to combat the ableism that people with disabilities face in the workforce, this project asserts that people with disabilities can be accepted as equally valued contributors. The Friendship Circle has been building connections between young people with and without disabilities through year-round inclusive and accessible activities for over 18 years. Witnessing the changing needs of our adult members as they aged out of our traditional under 18 programming, The Friendship Circle thought it prudent to help them build work-related skills. This effort began with our successful FC Pop-Up Bakery in 2020, which fulfilled quarterly orders with adult members in baker roles. Bunny Bakes expands on that success by offering a public storefront, customer service roles, regular bakery production shifts, and adaptive training tailored to the needs of each member. We hope that by offering an integrated bakery and coffee shop open to the community, we will serve as a model for inclusive employment to other local businesses. 

Bunny Bakes is a fully-functioning bakery located next to our main facility in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, PA. We train and employ adults with disabilities in baker, cashier, and greeter roles. With the help of volunteers, visual aids, and other accessibility accommodations, we have graduated eight trainees into independent roles at the bakery since November 2023 and are looking to welcome a new cohort this spring. As new trainees graduate from the training program, we plan to match them with similar employment opportunities at other local businesses, helping to foster a more inclusive workforce in Pittsburgh and beyond.

Bunny Bakes serves young adults with disabilities who are currently underserved with regards to employment opportunities. By training them in an inclusive environment and matching them with employment opportunities, we help them live more independent lives by earning income and navigating the workforce. Additionally, Bunny Bakes serves as a sensory-friendly community space where members of the public can gather, plus interact with adults with disabilities in a normalized setting.

The Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh has been serving youth with disabilities for over 18 years through clubs, family programs, and teen and adult events. As our members aged out of our traditional programs upon graduating high school, we realized they still needed support in age-appropriate ways, including employment opportunities. We have collected and continue to collect feedback from our approximately 200 adult members and their families after every event, which guided our expansion of our adult program into bakery training. This input resulted in our creating the FC Pop-Up Bakery in 2020, which then grew into Bunny Bakes with its own storefront in 2023.

Bunny Bakes opened in November 2023 and has since expanded its hours to Sunday through Friday from 7:30 AM – 2:30 PM with extended hours on Thursdays until 5 PM. The Bakery Training Manager, along with other Bunny Bakes staff and community volunteers, train adult members with disabilities twice a week in baking, greeting, and cashier skills. The training program has graduated eight trainees into independent roles at the bakery. The training manager and other Bunny Bakes staff have developed visual aids and adaptive tools that help members of all abilities succeed in the bakery environment. Over the past year, trainees have advanced from solely finishing treats to creating items from start-to-finish.

We have created rewards programs, dessert happy hours, seasonal items, and other promotions to attract customers. We also offer catering and connect with other local organizations to fulfill their large event catering needs. After one year of operation, our production volume and revenue has significantly increased, but we are still working to offset training costs.

bunnybakes.org

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Bunny Bakes differs from other inclusive bakery concepts because it partners with local businesses to place trained fellows in similar roles, resulting in an expanded impact and more inclusive workplaces throughout Pittsburgh.

As the training program graduates its current cohort into independent roles at Bunny Bakes, we aim to welcome new members to the training program by March 2025. The goal of these members’ training will be to place them in other businesses in the surrounding community upon graduation. To this end, we are working to create partnerships between Bunny Bakes and other local organizations. The Bakery Training Manager evaluates Bunny Bakes trainees' progress through assessments, which determine their graduation into baker, greeter, or barista roles.

Bunny Bakes will promote sales through monitoring customer trends, ensuring product quality, and offering catering services. We instituted a points-based and punch card rewards program that gives incentives to customers who keep coming back to our store. We have also created “dessert happy hours” during certain days of the week and seasonal menus, which are promoted through our Instagram and the Friendship Circle newsletter. Other goals for the project include to produce quality baked goods and coffee, train individuals with and without disabilities to develop useful and transferrable skills, and encourage other establishments to hire diversely and inclusively. 

The Friendship Circle employs 16 full-time staff, including several specifically dedicated to Bunny Bakes, while others work indirectly on the project. Sixteen part-time employees work or are trained at Bunny Bakes, and three community volunteers regularly work with the trainees.

Bunny Bakes has been operating since November 2023, but the idea for a bakery for adults with disabilities has been in motion since 2020.

Our leadership team consists of several Jewish individuals and women, and we work to extend our values of inclusion to our team. We are working on improving the diversity of our board, which currently includes several Jewish members, a member who identifies as LGBTQ+, a person of color, and several parents of children or adults with disabilities. While we want to be mindful to avoid tokenism, we are actively taking steps to identify adults with disabilities or persons of color for the board and are attempting to proceed with some possible candidates. 

Bunny Bakes provides value to fellows by training them in transferrable work skills and placing them with local employers. The cafe also serves hundreds of customers per week by providing kosher baked goods, as well as a sensory-friendly community space in which to gather.

Our organization achieves sustainability through on generous foundation funding, our growing individual donor base, annual fundraisers, and other strategic development efforts. We are also considering alternative funding sources such as the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR) to offset training costs for this project. 

Bunny Bakes would not be possible without our successful capital funding campaign that allowed us to purchase and renovate the unit next door to our main facility and outfit it as a cafe. 

When we saw that MIT Solve was accepting proposals for workforce solutions for those underserved in terms of employment opportunities, we wanted to make sure adults with disabilities were included in the conversation. We want to expand our inclusive training and employment program into a model for communities across the country. The workshops, consultants, and capacity-building resources beyond the grant funding would be invaluable to help our initiative grow into a sustainable business.