While Zest Cafe looks just like any other St Andrews cafe from the outside, on the inside it is anything but.
The South Street eatery has trained and hired young people with disabilities for 14 years.
Owner Lisa Cathro started the social enterprise in order to help those with additional support needs get and retain work.
Having general anxiety disorder herself, Lisa wanted to extend a helping hand to people who need extra support to maintain employment.
“I think a lot of employers are scared to take on people with disabilities,” she says.
“But when you have disabilities yourself, you’re going to make mistakes anyway, so it’s not an issue.
“Because you’ve put effort in and invested in your employees, you get much more loyalty and they’re much more engaged.”
Zest Cafe kickstart success
To further her mission, the cafe owner applied to be part of the Kickstart Scheme funded by the UK Government.
It offers six month job placements for young people at risk of long-term unemployment.
Zest’s first Kickstarter Connor Houston started a year ago and now has a permanent job at the cafe.
“As Connor has quite severe dyslexia he struggles with a lot of things for learning and work,” explains Lisa.
“He’s been great in helping us understand dyslexia and we’ve done lots of adjustments to help him.
“All our contracts and staff handbooks are done in audio format now, so anyone who struggles with reading can listen to the section they want on their phone.”
Alongside Connor works Zest’s second Kickstarter Kieron Mead and they are both studying for modern apprenticeships.
Through the scheme, the cafe gets £1,500 towards each person’s training.
Making disability adjustments
The funding has covered everything from modules in food hygiene to barista courses.
It has also helped Lisa create a good working environment for all the Kickstarters.
She has discovered that making adjustments for people with disabilities is not always expensive.
“One boy has autism and really struggled with sensory input, especially noise,” she says.
“A busy cafe is quite overwhelming, there’s many different noises going on and when you’re trying to concentrate on different tasks it is a difficult environment.
“I got Damien some earplugs which filter out certain frequencies and it changed his life. No panic attacks, no anxiety, no sore ears for £20.
“Employers think people with disabilities need expensive adjustments put in place and they don’t.”
Funding for training has also allowed the cafe’s core staff to upskill alongside the Kickstarters.
Investing in the Zest Cafe team
Since November last year, Zest Cafe has spent £6,000 on staff training.
Lockdowns also provided the opportunity to upgrade the cafe and make it more accessible.
“In summer we planned that if we got locked down we would invest into staff training,” says Lisa.
“The team is now more confident and resilient – we’re coming out the other side stronger.”
As well as doing international barista qualifications, tasks around the cafe can be used to teach core skills such as maths, geography and economics.
Lisa’s Kickstarters have learnt so much about coffee they will soon hold workshops in Zest.
“I’m really keen to be an example for other employers about investing in your people,” she says.
“If employers don’t invest in their staff, that’s when you get turnover.
“But we’ve got the lowest staff turnover in hospitality.
“If you’ve got disability and someone is investing in you, you don’t go to a different job where you don’t get that.
“If you look after your people, they stay.”
