Commonwealth Autism recently launched a coffee cart under the new Brewing Opportunities initiative. (Courtesy Commonwealth Autism)
Three years after acquiring a South Richmond grocery store, Commonwealth Autism is looking to expand its retail footprint while also growing its workforce development programming.
The nonprofit organization that owns and operates Good Foods Grocery recently launched Brewing Opportunities, the newest offering from its Career Readiness and Employment program. The initiative allows participants to run a coffee cart that started to operate at the grocery store in mid-October.
Commonwealth Autism spent $25,000 to launch Brewing Opportunities, which includes the branded cart and coffee being sold out of it. The program, which aims to train up to eight adults per year, has been mostly financed with a $20,000 grant from the Windsor Foundation.
Brewing Opportunities is intended to give people with autism the experience of running a small business and familiarity with customer service. Commonwealth Autism spokesman Dave Martin said the program aims to provide more job-training opportunities and insight into business with a simpler concept than a grocery store.
“We wanted to teach not just retail work roles, but this gives us an opportunity to teach entrepreneurship a bit,” Martin said. “A grocery store is such a big business. It’s hard to teach in detail about all the working parts, and this is more digestible.”
Martin said Scott’s Addition-based Afterglow Coffee helped with planning the program, training and equipment setup that supported the launch of Brewing Opportunities. The effort builds on an existing relationship between Afterglow and Commonwealth Autism, which was already selling Afterglow coffee at Good Foods. Afterglow doesn’t sponsor or fund the program.
Currently, the cart is active on Tuesdays at Good Foods. Looking forward, the plan is for the cart to set up at other locations around town starting in January.
“Some of our corporate partners have expressed interest in hosting the cart at their businesses, and we’re working out the details with them,” Martin said.
The coffee cart initiative comes as Commonwealth Autism is in the early stages of plans to open a second grocery store, Tyler Hart, the organization’s CEO, told BizSense.
Commonwealth Autism bought Good Foods in 2023 with plans to use the store as a venue for vocational training for people with autism. Hart said the project has been successful and an additional store would generate more job opportunities for people who go through the program.
“It’s really about creating opportunities for adults that have been somewhat marginalized, in an environment that is inclusive. The customers at Good Foods have been so welcoming and open to a model that is different,” Hart said. “It’s worked out nicely and it’s been a fun adventure.”
Commonwealth Autism in 2023 bought Good Foods Grocery, which it uses as a venue for jobs-skills training for people with autism. (BizSense file)
Ideally, the nonprofit would identify and purchase an existing local grocery store similar to Good Foods, which operates as a specialty grocer out of its 9,400-square-foot space at 3062 Stony Point Road.
But Commonwealth Autism may also look to start a new store from scratch, in which case it would likely be smaller than Good Foods, in the range of 2,500 to 4,000 square feet, but offer similar products to Good Foods.
“We’re investigating and looking around to see what options are available,” Hart said.
Hart said he hopes to have a second store under Commonwealth Autism’s banner within two years. As of last week, the organization said it wasn’t having active conversations about an acquisition with any Richmond-area specialty store.
Commonwealth Autism representatives wouldn’t comment on any potential interest it might have in attempting to acquire Ellwood Thompson’s, the Carytown grocery store that was recently merged into a data center firm.
Hart said Commonwealth Autism would need to launch a fundraising campaign to finance the project to establish a second location.
Good Foods has experienced double-digit, year-over-year revenue growth since it was purchased, according to Hart. Commonwealth Autism has trained 80 people in its Career Readiness and Employment program. There are 22 program graduates who work at Good Foods, and they represent about 40% of the store’s staff.
The post Nonprofit behind Good Foods Grocery launches coffee cart training program as it plans second store appeared first on Richmond BizSense.
