Adults eighteen and older with special needs have the opportunity to learn important skills and gain work experience through The Friendship Bakery. From mixing ingredients and baking, food safety, decorating desserts, to packaging finished products and delivering the delicious treats and challah to your door, our students are involved in it all. 

The Friendship Bakery was started to address a vocational education gap that occurs for high school graduates with disabilities. Many of these graduates have limited employment options consisting of a narrow range of tasks or community participation programs. Friendship Bakery provides an opportunity to gain the experience needed to join the work force, and one day soon offer an outstanding alternative with a full time profession in the world of baking and food. 

Participants receive the opportunity to meaningfully contribute to a business in a challenging, safe, supervised environment. The Friendship Bakery equips them with valuable skills for employment. Most importantly, it builds independence and self-esteem giving each individual a sense of purpose and ownership for their work, while also giving these trainees the knowledge that their valuable work supports the opportunities they are participating in. 

The majority of the preparation will be done independently with Friendship Circle staff checking each step and providing support when needed. There will be volunteers on hand to assist when necessary.

The Friendship Bakery Program is tailored for independent adults with special needs who do not require one-on-one assistance with a staff member or volunteer. 

The Friendship Bakery Program: 

Participants will learn the baking processes of measuring and mixing, preparing different pastries and bread products, kitchen and food preparation skills, and social interaction skills. 

The Friendship Bakery will have its desserts and challah distributed to individuals and local organizations, so participants will be responsible for baking on schedule to meet demand. 

Kosher: 

All bakery products are kosher pareve - Pas Yisroel, and is under the strict kosher supervision of MKT (Mehadrin Kashrut of Texas)

The Friendship Bakery an initiative of The Houston Friendship Circle (501c3) is grateful for the generous support of the Houston Jewish Community Fund (HJCF) in the form of a grant awarded during the 2022 Grant Cycle