Breaking Grounds, Peabody coffee shop that employs adults with mental disabilities, temporarily closed
PEABODY - A Peabody coffee shop that provides food and customer service training for individuals with disabilities and autism is now closed for several weeks after a fire that broke out two floors above the business sent water cascading into the cafe, causing heavy damage.
Breaking Grounds is only beginning to assess the damage to the business, but the impact on its employees and interns in the Project Perk program has been devastating.
"We really started to see some skills being developed by the group that was in here. They're in a grieving process right now, so they've lost their community activity, they've lost their community relationships, they've lost their sense of pride," said Tim Brown with Northeast Arc, which manages the cafe and program.
While the business assesses the damage to the supplies, paper products and drink making machines that have yet to be tested without power, operations manager Knicki Foss said it's the employees they serve that are impacted the most.
"Everyone likes structure in their life and once you remove that in this part of it, it's very big for our individuals that are supported here," said Foss.
Insurance will cover some of the water damage to floors and walls, but won't cover salaries and some of the equipment that will be costly and take time to replace. And not the community that's fostered here every day.
"I don't wish to be anywhere else besides here," said Foss. "I miss this every single day."
At Breaking Grounds they say they change lives one cup at a time. But now they can only take it one day at a time.
WBZ-TV featured the cafe back in December 2017.
For more information, visit their website.
