The work day for Michelle Anderson and Jake Lukens at Moose and Me Bakery began Tuesday with an order for cookies for a Christmas in July event.
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“Do you know what we get to do today?” boss Megan Elder asked her two employees Tuesday. “Christmas cookies already! But it’s so hot outside.”
Elder has known Anderson and Lukens for 14 years, when she met them at a teen ministry she started for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. She stayed in touch with them, and knew they’d be a perfect fit when she started making plans for her new baking venture, she said.
“When we had this dream, we reached out to Jake and Michelle (to see) if they wanted to be a part of our dream,” Elder said.
Moose and Me Bakery launched in March and is based out of Elder’s home in Naperville. The business is limited in size and resources, with the one kitchen oven, a few mixers, baking supplies, and basic fridge and freezer appliances.
But Elder and her team of two — Anderson, 26, has Down syndrome and Lukens, 31, has Down syndrome and autism — are making plans to move into a storefront later this year. The goal is not just to expand operations and service, but to hire more adults with different needs and abilities, she said.
“Often (people with special needs) are not perceived (positively),” Elder said. “They’re perceived as someone with a disability, therefore something negative is associated (with them). But we see that as their disabilities aren’t negative, they make them unique. We want to create a unique workspace for them to feel like they belong.”
Moose and Me is the brainchild of Elder and her 8-year-old adopted daughter, Mila — nicknamed “Moose” — who also has Down syndrome.
“It was started because Mila and I baked a lot early mornings. We’d make monster cookies and cakes and cupcakes. She always loved baking,” Elder said.
“We do monster cookies and sugar cookies. We also make cakes and cupcakes — we frost everything,” Anderson said of their baked goods menu. Monster cookies contain oatmeal, chocolate chips, peanut butter and M&Ms candies.
They also sell gift boxes, cookie-making kits and “It Must Be Moose” coffee.
“I like it here (for my future),” Anderson said of working at Moose and Me. She’ll work a few hours a day three or four days a week, depending on the orders.
“They are so excited about the people we are baking for,” Elder said. “You always want to know whose birthday it is, what’s the celebration, why they’re ordering cookies. Just having that excitement is really unique. (Anderson, Lukens and Mila) care and they’re interested and excited about what they’re doing.”
In addition to baking equipment, another limitation for Moose and Me is its reliance on volunteers to deliver orders for customers who are unable to pick items up at her house, Elder said.
That said, business has been good. They get five to seven orders a week, and July already booked solid, Elder said. Orders require 10 to 14 days’ advance notice.
“The support has been overwhelming,” she said.
Elder hopes to relocate Moose and Me to storefront in Naperville with about 1,000 square feet of space. A brick-and-mortar location would allow her to hire more employees with different abilities and adjust the space to better accommodate them, she said.
“We want to already have this space modified so when they come in they can be themselves and be comfortable and be successful,” Elder said. “I think it’s important to do this because they are so capable. Jake, Michelle, Mila are so capable of doing so many things.”
Moose and Me launched a $50,000 Kickstarter crowdsourcing campaign to help raise the money they need, and as of Tuesday it had taken in $43,000. Unlike other online crowdsourcing platforms, Kickstarter sets a deadline for funds to be raised and won’t release the money if the bakery campaign doesn’t hit its target by Aug. 10.
The $50,000 would allow Elder to purchase a large convection oven, commercial mixer, refrigerators, freezers, prep tables, and other supplies and equipment needed for a professional bakery.
“As we consider spaces, one of the most important aspects that we are looking for is the ability to create space for meaningful interactions between our employees and our customers,” the letter accompanying the Kickstarter campaign said.
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“We’re hopeful that a build-out will highlight our employees’ baking abilities and give them the ability to interact with every one that comes into the store.”
If things go smoothly, Elder said she would like to have the Moose and Me bakery ready to open in the fall.