Clients in the Munroe-Meyer Institute’s job training program have a new gig — working behind the counter of the new Carriage House Café at Joslyn Castle & Gardens.
The café is a new enterprise designed to provide workforce development experiences for adults served by MMI.
Through hands-on training in a real-world setting, participants will build essential job skills, including customer service, teamwork and food service operations.
“This is an exciting way to enhance and expand our training,” said Rachel Ray, assistant professor and Nebraska EmployABILITY project director at MMI. “These new training opportunities will help prepare students for long-term employment success while building the skills employers are seeking in today’s workforce.”
To start, the café is open Mondays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., aligning with Joslyn Castle tour times. The limited menu offers coffee, tea and scones.
One MMI trainee staffs the café right now, Ray said. Eventually they hope to grow the number of employees.
The café is important to the mission of both organizations, officials said.
“This café has been a dream of ours for years, and Munroe-Meyer is the perfect partner to bring it to life,” said Joslyn Castle Executive Director Amy Richardson. “Our hope with the café is that our guests and neighbors will feel welcomed to spend more time on campus with us, whether it be to meet a friend to catch up over a cup of coffee, visit our rotating exhibitions or picnic in the gardens.”
Guests milled around the space, adorned with string lights draped from the ceiling and art dotting the walls. The smell of coffee wafted through the Carriage House at the café’s recent grand opening.
The café is important to the work done at MMI and through the Nebraska EmployABILITY Project, Ray said. “To have such a fabulous partner is a dream come true.”
This project is funded by Joslyn Castle and the U.S. Department of Education, grant number H421F240047.