Our catering project took off with a bit of help from contacts with local businesses. We catered at the Passport to Wellness event at Aurora Cultural Centre. We now have a tent given to us by a local business at the Newmarket Farmers Market, where we sell coffee, tea, juice, hot chocolate on cold days and hopefully some bakes. We have involved a number of adults with autism and developmental delay as trainees, to be trained by our volunteers, myself as one and one or two job coaches, to set up and prepare the tent for sale. Prepare the coffee, deal with customers, handle cash improve math and clean up. Eventually we hope to involve the trainees to be involved in ordering and buying the items needed.
When our costs are paid up we hope the trainees most of whom are not able to find employment in the community, to take the profit and share it among them as a reward.
The main purpose of Commons Cafe and Catering is to involve people with disability in the community, to show the community their ABILITIES and gifts, Give them an opportunity to get experience in running the business.
We hope the experience will provide them with job opportunities in the community when the Market is over. We do hope to get established in late fall in a permanent location and become a not for profit organization.
So far through announcing our purpose only through word of mouth, we have attracted 6 adults who are interested to help at the booth. We have also had an amazing response from people who have visited us and found out that we are not just a coffee booth for profit but a booth with a special purpose!
We are applying for the third time for the Awesome fund as our costs are increasing. Other than the registration costs for the major events, we have had to get insurance for events, pay for a banner. We also are in dire need of

equipment such as tables, coffee brewers and urns .