BUILDING PURPOSE AND COMMUNITY
Nonprofit offers job opportunities to adults with special needs
The nonprofit Friendship Circle recently purchased Dakota Bread Company in West Bloomfield as a way to offer job training opportunities for adults with special needs.
“The most important thing you can do for individuals with special needs is fill their day with purpose in a way that includes them in the community, and this bakery will do exactly that,” said Bassie Shemtov, Friendship Circle co-founder.
“Dakota Bread Company is a well-known and admired business in the community, and we’re grateful for the opportunity to build upon that legacy and become even more engrained in the metro Detroit community.”
The bakery re- opened under Friendship Circle management on Oct. 19. The organization retained all 11 employees of Dakota Bread Company and vows to not change the challah bread recipe – the menu item that the Jewish gourmet bakery is most known for. The current staff will continue in their respective roles, in addition to helping train adults with special needs.
Shalom Shomer, current director of Soul Café, Epic Kosher and Milk & Honey, will direct the bakery, and Friendship Circle will hire an additional staff member to manage the full bakery training program. The bakery training program will be available for adults with special needs to teach them life skills, including time management, organization, customer service and more – with the goal of helping them become employable (at the bakery or elsewhere) in the future.
Dakota Bread Company is located at 6879 Orchard Lake Road, West Bloomfield Township. For more information, visit friendshipcircle.org/2020/ 10/friendship- circle- dakota-bread.