Not everyone knows what goes on in the stockroom at Nature’s Bin, one of the region’s premier natural food stores, since 1975. Parent company Cornucopia uses the Nature’s Bin retail store in Lakewood as a vocational rehabilitation training facility that provides over 280 services to more than 150 people a year with disabilities.
Not only that, the Nature’s Bin retail environment prepares these trainees for competitive employment in the community by giving them a head start. This includes people with disabilities, autism, mental illness, speec and hearing impairment, and injuries resulting from accident or illness.
That’s one reason Cornucopia is taking over the abandoned McDonald’s restaurant building on Sloane Avenue next door to their current shop. They need more space for their training, food prep and budding catering services operation.
And that’s not all. A recent partnership with Jo-Ann Fabrics’s supplier Darice joins others, including TJ Maxx, Eliza Jennings Senior Care, and Jennings Center for Older Adults, all of which are community-based training sites like Nature’s Bin which provide developmental and vocational training in real-world, real-life work settings.
So while you’re digging the fresh produce from local farms, vitamins, craft beer and fruit baskets at Nature’s Bin, you can feel good knowing you’re supporting developmental training programs along with the local economy, local farms and local residents.
For more information on Cornucopia and their programs, visit http://www.naturesbin.com/cornucopia/index.php
For details on Nature’s Bin and their catering services, visit http://www.NaturesBin.com