A Glazed & Amused thread

Donuts for Everyone

The shops that make room.

In 2025, about 23 percent of Americans with a disability had a job. For everyone else the figure was 65. A donut shop is one of the places that gap closes a little: early hours, a small crew, work you can learn by hand, a counter where everybody is a regular.

This trail started with an email. A mother who writes about raising an autistic son sent notes from a Sunday morning at Congdon's in Wells, Maine, and a picture board she made so he could order a honey dip by pointing. We went looking for the shops that do that kind of thing on purpose.

We found a shop in North Carolina that exists because a young man with Down syndrome said he wanted one, an Ohio shop where every employee has a job coach, an Iowa shop a mother bought in her son's memory, a Virginia Beach nonprofit forty years in, and two bakeries that hire people leaving homelessness. We did not find what we expected to: no Deaf-owned donut shop, no shop with posted sensory hours, none certified by the programs that do that for stadiums and museums. If you know one, tell us.

I want a doughnut shop.

Before you go

Christian's Rise opens Thursday to Saturday mornings plus one Wednesday a month. Carriage Town is weekdays. Congdon's is quietest on off-season mornings; the summer food-truck park out back is a louder setting. The Congdon's picture board is a free two-page PDF from An AUsome Life, made by a visitor and meant to sit alongside a person's own way of communicating.

Where they are

Rolling out the map…

Positions are approximate.

The shops

Congdon's Doughnuts
1090 Post Road, Wells, ME · since 1955
Clint and Dot "Nana" Congdon started in Kennebunk in 1945; Nana and her son-in-law built the Route 1 shop in 1955, and Jillian and Chris Shomphe bought it in 2024. Honey dips, chocolate twists and apple fritters, with a drive-through and a summer food-truck park out back.
In October 2026 the family blog An AUsome Life published notes from a quiet Sunday visit with an autistic son who had room to dance in the outdoor seating, and a free printable picture board for ordering: Plain, Honey dip, Chocolate raised, Apple fritter, Help, Break, All done. These are a visitor's notes and a visitor's tool, not a Congdon's program. The author says the Congdon's Too! porch has steps and that wheelchair clearance at the picnic tables was not measured.
Known for: Honey dips, and a visitor's picture board
Sugar Plum Bakery
1353 Laskin Rd, Virginia Beach, VA · since 1985
A nonprofit bakery opened in 1985 by parents of a daughter with an intellectual disability, with help from a federal grant, and still employing workers with disabilities forty years on. "If you just give people a little chance," longtime manager Trish Clark told WTKR in 2025.
The cases hold Texas-size donuts beside brownies, lemon bars and cakes. The crew scoops, greases pans and dips: "They have their hand in 90% of what goes out," says operations manager Leah Bedell.
Known for: Nonprofit bakery, Texas-size donuts
Written about, not listed. A nonprofit bakery with donuts as one line among many, so it lives on this trail rather than in the listings.
Down for Doughnuts
880 E Iredell Ave, Mooresville, NC · since 2020
David and Lisa Cooper opened on March 21, 2020, World Down Syndrome Day. Their son Zachary, born in 1989 with Down syndrome, supplied the business plan in five words: "I want a doughnut shop." The family wanted a place where Zach could work beside his father and others could find a job that fit.
Doughnuts are hand-rolled, hand-cut and hand-frosted, 7:30 to 1:30. WCNC counted ten employees and hiring across physical and mental disabilities. "We make great doughnuts and we have a lot of fun," David says.
Known for: Hand-cut doughnuts, inclusive hiring
Maggie's and More
6821 Wakefield Rd, Hiram, OH
Abra Schweickert, a special-education teacher, bought this shop in June 2019 so her students would have somewhere to work after graduation. Every employee has a job coach. The shop runs fundraisers to keep the program going, and News 5 Cleveland called it a vital mission.
It sells donuts from Maggie's, the Middlefield shop whose name it carries, which is why it's not in the directory: Maggie's is a small franchise. The program in Hiram is the strongest one we found, so it's here anyway, with that noted.
Known for: A job coach for every employee
Written about, not listed. A unit of a small Ohio franchise, so it can't be listed. It's on this trail for the program.
Carriage Town Bakery (Blueline Donuts)
604 Garland St, Flint, MI
Blueline Donuts began in 2017 as a social enterprise of Carriage Town Ministries, Flint's homeless shelter, and grew into a full bakery in 2022. Weekdays 6:30 to 2, Sunday-morning pickup, and wholesale.
The jobs are low-barrier and transitional, for people coming out of chronic homelessness, and they teach baking, food handling and the counter. "Securing a dependable income stream is a key contributing factor to breaking the cycle of homelessness." A second-chance program rather than a disability one; it's on the "every kind of worker" side of this trail.
Known for: Transitional jobs, Blueline donuts
Pioneer Bakery Cafe
210 N Kirkwood Rd, Kirkwood, MO · since 2020
Opened in October 2020 in the old McArthur's Bakery space, it's the hands-on site for Lafayette Industries' StepUp program: classroom first, then one to two years of front- and back-of-house work for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Nine of eleven recent graduates moved into competitive jobs above minimum wage.
Derek Baker, from the first cohort, now has about two million followers for his Baker Banter videos. "It changed my life," he told Today. Donuts, danish and gooey butter cake under the motto "turn disabilities into possibilities."
Known for: StepUp job-training bakery
Written about, not listed. A bakery cafe where donuts are a sideline, so it lives on this trail rather than in the listings.
Christian's Rise Donuts
614 Market St, Harlan, IA
Shari Nichols bought the shop on Harlan's town square in March 2024. Her son Christian, who had quadriplegic cerebral palsy and died at seven, "introduced me to the world of special needs," she wrote in her owner's note for this directory. She wanted the shop's jobs to stay in town and to stay open to people of all abilities, with job coaches. "It takes compassionate, patient people."
The donuts are yeast-raised with real mashed potatoes: glazed, cinnamon sugar, maple frosted, maple bacon. Thursday and Friday 7 to 11, Saturday 8 to noon, and the third Wednesday of the month.
Known for: Potato-dough donuts, all-abilities hiring
See the listing →
The Other Side Donuts
760 S Redwood Rd, Salt Lake City, UT (and two more)
A social enterprise of The Other Side Village, a nonprofit tiny-home community for formerly chronically homeless people, run by an Other Side Academy graduate and staffed by residents and students. The team planned cookies until research showed Utah was short on donut shops. It opened in July 2024.
The donuts are over the top on purpose: strawberry cheesecake, piña colada key lime, a 24K maple honey bacon, and The Troll, topped with cotton candy. Like Flint, a second-chance program rather than a disability one.
Known for: Over-the-top donuts that fund housing
Written about, not listed. Not yet in the directory.

A donut shop is a small room where everybody gets the same thing in the same bag. Find one near you, and if it makes room, tell us about it.

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Where they are

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