VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — When you step inside Sugar Plum Bakery, the luscious aroma of vanilla, chocolate and buttercream surrounds you.
Virginia Beach resident Katelyn Hawker is buying some of these decadent delights for her wedding.
“We tried the brownies. I love chocolate, and then my fiancé really liked the lemon bar,” she said.
The Laskin Road bakery opened in 1985, founded by a couple who had a daughter with a disability.
“They wanted her to have an opportunity to learn some job skills and work,” said Trish Clark, the bakery’s longtime manager. “They felt like she could do a lot even though she had an intellectual disability.”
So the bakery became a nonprofit, hiring others in the community with disabilities.
Clark has been the manager for nearly 25 years, watching people who’ve been told they can’t succeed become top-notch workers and bakers.
“If you just give people a little chance—and maybe we’re teaching them a little bit differently—we can accomplish so much,” Clark said. “Before you know it, you’ve got a finished product and everyone gets excited.”
One of those employees is Lauren Masters, who’s been there for 10 years.
“On my birthday, I did a vanilla and chocolate cake with a beautiful design,” Masters said.
Clark said a bakery is the perfect business to employ workers with disabilities.
“Washing dishes, cleaning, making cookies, scooping cookies, cutting our cakes — all of that is different skill sets,” she said. “But it’s all of us working together that makes the bakery work."
Sugar Plum also has experienced cake decorators who pitch in, creating an atmosphere of learning and love — and the result is sweet success.
Drive on over to 1353 Laskin Rd. in Virginia Beach to visit Sugar Plum Bakery. Click here to see what sweet treats they have to offer.
