NONPROFIT
spectrum — established the nonprofit organization in July 2016 to provide employment and vocational training to young adults with developmental disabilities.
A bag of Growlers Dog Bones bears two stickers, one indicating the brewery that donated the grain and the other identifying the worker who packaged the treats.
Noltemeyer — who lives with her husband, David, and Max, the youngest of the couple’s three children, in the village of Asheville, about 20 miles south of Columbus — teaches career-based intervention at the Pickaway-Ross Career and Technology Center in Circleville.
She was inspired to pursue the nonprofit venture after struggling to help Max find a vocational opportunity to fit his needs.
“When we don’t expect a person with disabilities to work, we’re really not expecting them to develop identity and self-fulfillment,” she said. “I finally decided to quit complaining and do something about it.”
Given the booming success of both the pet and craft-beer industries, Noltemeyer, 51, figured that dog treats made from wetbarley byproducts would be a winner.
She got the idea from various recipes she saw on social media, eventually choosing one from the Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Oregon. In addition to the spent grain, the ingredients include peanut butter, rice flour and eggs.
Community donations — including $3,000 from the Columbus Brewing Co., which the brewery raised at the release party for Creeper, an imperial India Pale Ale — and an interestfree loan helped her get the venture off the ground.
Columbus Brewing also became the first of 13 area breweries to agree to donate spent grain, which would otherwise go to farmers for cattle feed.
“It was very easy on our part to help them since they do all the work,” said Eric Bean, who co-owns the brewery with his wife, Beth. “Great people and just a cool concept.”
Noltemeyer estimated that she uses 40 to 55 gallons a month of the grain leftover after the mash extracts most of the nutrients.
In a little more than a year, Growlers has sold more than 4,000 bags at $8 apiece.
The measure of success that Noltemeyer cares most about, however, is this one: Dozens of young adults with disabilities have worked to bake, package and distribute the dog treats.
In the program’s first year, 45 people — mostly students from the Columbus Downtown High School and young adults from Food for Good Thought, an employment service for those with disabilities — worked weekly on the bones.
With the new academic year underway, students from Upper Arlington High School’s transition program have joined those from Columbus Downtown High to help.
Additionally, Food for Good Thought is sending five students from its transition program. Students from each program work different days and schedules — some weekly, others biweekly — to bake and package the product.
The students who work are volunteers, although the young workers from Food for Good Thought are paid minimum wage through the workforce-development program from Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities. The ultimate goal, Noltemeyer said, is for those employees to leave Growlers equipped with the skills necessary for future employment.
“Having an agency and a business like Growlers, it’s providing them that potential long-term work experience,” said Sarah Duplessis, director of Food for Good Thought. “People with special needs are not only employable, but they’re good employees, they’re reliable employees and they’re invaluable to the community.”
After relying on a core group of volunteers for the first year, Noltemeyer recently hired two parttime employees to oversee the baking process, which takes place at the Food Fort, a kitchen incubator on the East Side.
Recently, five students from Upper Arlington were bused to the kitchen for the first time to make two batches of the treats with grain from Ill Mannered Brewing, with each batch filling about a dozen bags. The process involved mixing the ingredients in a giant metal bowl, pressing the dough into molds and then baking for about two hours.
“Once people get the hang of it, you can see they enjoy it more,” said Celeste Cantwell, an employee who worked that day.
Carly Camilleri, an intervention specialist who teaches special-needs students at Upper Arlington, learned about Growlers in May while at the Worthington Farmers Market.
Seeing a sign at the nonprofit’s booth explaining its mission, she said she felt compelled to contact Noltemeyer.
Although the Upper Arlington students have participated just once to date, she sees a lot of potential for her students to learn valuable skills.
“We have a lot we can work on and take back to school,” Camilleri said. “These types of skills are definitely things they can use post-graduation.”
The bones are sold through the partner breweries with a tap room, retail shops such as Hills Market and Global Galleries, and at the Worthington Farmers Market.
Noltemeyer hopes to soon sell the treats individually or in smaller packages at coffee shops that attract a lot of foot traffic.
She’s also working with Food for Good Thought, which operates a gluten-free bakery, to develop a healthier grain-free dog treat.
On Aug. 16, Growlers was awarded a $24,000 grant from SEAChange Columbus — money she hopes to use to expand the workforce to accommodate the growing list of schools interested in partnering with her.
“Everyone needs an identity,” Noltemeyer said, “a place to go, a place for people like you.”
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