LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — A Gwinnett County nonprofit bakery that employs 47 adults with special needs came within a week of missing payroll this summer, and more than $43,000 in donations has bought it time but not a way out.
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Special Kneads and Treats in Lawrenceville puts out 26 flavors of cupcakes a day, along with cheesecakes, brownies and cake pops. Its mission is giving away free birthday cakes to children through local food co-ops and foster care groups.
Tempa Kohler and her husband opened the bakery for their son Bradley, who has Fragile X syndrome. They wanted him to have somewhere to work.
“God had other plans and said, ‘If you can do it for him, you can do it for others,’” Kohler said.
Summers are the hardest stretch. Teachers and schools make up much of the bakery’s support, and this year repair bills on a 1950s building and secondhand equipment came due at the same time.
“When it got to where we had one week’s worth of payroll left, we’re like, okay, we’re not sure what’s going to happen,” Kohler said.
The bakery put out a call on July 8. Donations have topped $43,000, and new customers have come through the door for the first time.
Julie Cunningham signed up as a monthly donor, then brought three grandchildren in to buy cupcakes. Each one gave $5 of their own.
“It made me feel like I need to step up and help,” Cunningham said.
Kohler said the bakery has 97 recurring donors and needs 250 to stay open through December.
Another 157 people are on the waiting list for a job there. Employees bake, clean, decorate cakes and label products, and they each get to decorate a cake of their own every week they come in.
“They age out of county programs at 22, and after that there’s just not a lot of opportunities for them to have jobs,” Kohler said. “Everyone needs to be needed.”
More information about donating is available at https://www.specialkneadsandtreats.org/
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