No Limits Café in Middletown, NJ having fundraiser for special-needs adults

The No Limits Café, the restaurant that is staffed primarily by adults with developmental disabilities, is having a fundraiser, a half marathon and a 5K run on Oct. 16 in Thompson Park in the Lincroft section of Middletown.

The entry fee is $30 and includes pre and post-race food. According to the café’s website: the first $100 you raise, gets you a team tech running shirt. Each additional $100 raised after that gets you 1 entry into the Grand Prize. (Each $100 we raise represents an employees’ salary for 1 day at No Limits Cafe!).

The café was founded to provide opportunities for adults who have intellectual disabilities who have “aged out” of the special education system, which ends at age 21 in New Jersey.

Co-founder Stephanie Cartier told the Asbury Park Press that the labor shortage in the state does not apply to the No Limits Café, “What’s good about us is we’re one of the only restaurants that doesn’t have an employee problem — a lack of employees. Last week alone we had three people with intellectual disabilities looking for jobs. We could staff a whole other restaurant if we wanted to.” 

Thirty-four of the restaurant’s 38 employees are intellectually disabled; they work as hostesses, servers, and kitchen workers for minimum wage ($12 an hour). Only 20% of adults with intellectual disabilities are employed and No Limits Café is looking to change that “one job at a time.”

To register for the run, volunteer, or donate, click here.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Doyle. Any opinions expressed are Bill Doyle's own.