Hugs Cafe, Greenhouse, and Academy Training and Employing for Adults with Special Needs

Hugs Cafe Inc is a non-profit social enterprise that provides meaningful employment and training for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities or brain injury.

We arecomposed of three programs. Hugs Caf is our flagship program where we directly employ adults with special needs in a caf setting.

We have taken our vocational training beyond those we currently employ. We have expanded Hugs Caf, Inc. to now include Hugs Training Academy; an educational training center for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities who seek to be employed in the food service and hospitality industries. We have 2 sites, one in McKinney and the other at Dallas College.

Hugs Greenhouse is our program that recognizes food service may not be for every person or every ability. We have developed a second social enterprise that trains and educates adults with special needs on gardening, retail sales, and socialization within the community.

At Hugs Cafe, we carve jobs to fit a person's abilities so they are able to perform a job suited for their individual needs. The special needs staff, or teammates, perform all of the roles necessary to run a restaurant with the help of volunteers, or job coaches. Jobs at our cafe are include server, cashier, sandwich line attendant, sides and dessert assembly, dish washer, host and more.

Hugs Greenhouse is located on 30 acres just north of the Trinity Falls development in McKinney. Hereour special needs staff grows flowers and bedding plants that they then sell to the general public. On the weekends, we sell flowers at the McKinney Farmer's Market as well as on select dates at our location.

The Hugs Training Academy curriculum is focused on providing entry level skills to students so they are ready to enter the workforce in the culinary or hospitably fields.Class is taught two days a week in two different locations (Dallas and McKinney). Class begins at 10am and end at 3pm each day.