Coffee With a Side of Warmth, Opportunity and Inclusion

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Employees and customers band together at Sleepy Coffee Too

September 7, 2024

By Sue Treiman–

What happens when your favorite people are too often the subject of myth and misconception? You create a coffee shop that introduces them to the world. Then, you invite the world in to embrace them.

That’s the philosophy behind Sleepy Coffee Too, a coffee shop in Sleepy Hollow staffed entirely by young people with disabilities. On the eve of an expanded effort to become a “third place” locale (a comfort zone outside of home and work), the shop at 110 Beekman Avenue offers a daily wake-up call about acceptance and understanding,

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Sleepy Coffee Too, the brainchild of retired Sleepy Hollow special education teacher Kim Kaczmarek, debuted in spring with a clear mission. “I wanted to create something that would be a public space more than just a coffee shop—and where I could bring in the community, educate people about disabilities and make the shop a real destination,” says Kaczmarek.

Twenty young adults with developmental disabilities work at Sleepy Coffee. Their conditions include Down syndrome, autism, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, multiple physical disabilities, intellectual disabilities, speech impairment and related problems. Some are Kaczmarek’s former Tarrytown High School students; others are drawn from the disabled population throughout Westchester, and all have “aged out” of the state-mandated educational system that ends after age 21.

The cozy shop fields three daily shifts of workers. Each stint is three hours long, with total weekly hours capped at nine to ensure disability benefits aren’t jeopardized. More their 60 would-be employees make up an ever-growing waiting list for future openings. “There’s an 80 percent unemployment rate among this population,” says Kaczmarek, “so while I was still teaching, I’d already started to think about starting a shop like this one day.”

Activities, events and entertainment

Come autumn, the Sleepy location will stay awake longer, adding activities to broaden its reach. Art classes, holiday celebrations, and special events are already on the agenda. They’ll gradually be joined by musical performances, open mike nights, meetings and other activities. The ambitious plans are designed to establish the coffee show as a familiar, everyday spot beyond work and home; a so-called “third place.” In the months since it debuted, the site has become a destination for locals, children and caregivers, remote workers, and often-overlooked group of young adults with disabilities.

At the high school, special education students assumed the care and running of a coffee cart that that also offered homemade baked goods. The exercise enhanced math ability, social skills, decision-making acumen and basic self-confidence. It also forged close ties and deep respect between the teacher and her students. “This population needs and wants the same things as everyone else,” says Kaczmarek, “and they deserve those things, and when I see our employees being independent, not needing help from others, and feeling confident, it’s unbelievably satisfying.”

Post Covid-blues.

Sadly, after her 2021 retirement, Kaczmarek discovered that many former students had become demoralized in the wake of Covid shutdowns and the subsequent economic turmoil. “After the pandemic, I’d run into students on the street and they would tell me it felt like everything in their lives was gone,” she recalls. “I decided it was the right time to open the coffeeshop,” she adds, “and I already knew that I would attract the most wonderful, reliable, hardworking, and goodnatured employees in the world.”

Armed with donations made during fund-raising campaigns, as well as from her own personal seed money, she located a spot, began the long process of transforming a warehouse space into a coffee shop, and finally opened her doors in spring. In addition to the expanded activities, she’ll install a professional baking room and, it’s hoped, supplement some of the shop’s profits by supplying pastries to her customers and other local stores. Again, she’ll apply more than 30 years of educational experience to the task of training her employees. “We break tasks down into each individual step and, if you look behind the behind the cash register, you’ll see all the cues and the dialogue written out, clearly explaining what to say and when,” says Kaczmarek, “And then I step back and let the staff shine.”

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