What's Brewing?

Melodee (left), a second-year Shepherds College student, and Brooke, with a customer.

Brooke (Henningfield) Clark ’15–’18 had just interviewed for a barista job when she got an unexpected phone call about a different kind of coffee shop.

Shepherds College, a school in Union Grove, Wisconsin, for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, was looking for someone to manage a café that would be built in a local bank—a café that would employ their culinary arts students with IDDs. Was she interested in coming in for an interview?

“Yes,” she replied. “I would be very interested!”

That was in March 2018. On August 11, Shepherds Community Café had its grand opening in the Community State Bank. Brooke supervised with a smile as two Shepherds alumni, Rachel and Amanda, took coffee orders from nonstop customers and made the drinks.

“It was challenging to keep up during the grand opening due to how many people came,” Brooke says. “But both of the girls did an awesome job and stayed calm.”

For Brooke, managing the café was a dream come true that began when she was a high school senior in Union Grove. She started volunteering at Shepherds, helping out in the female dorm and classrooms. Then she went to Moody Bible Institute, where several of her church leaders had attended, including her youth pastor, Ethan Davis ’01, his wife, Moriah (James ’00), and her head pastor, Nathan James ’74, and his wife, Susan (Garrison ’76). “Moody was the only place I wanted to go,” she says. “I was able to get excellent Bible and ministry training that would help me in future ministry. I also made some lifelong friendships.” One of those friends would become her husband, Bob Clark ’18, a police officer whom she met in Moody’s Public Safety while working part-time in the same department.

As a student, Brooke contemplated what kind of ministry to pursue and kept thinking of her volunteer experiences at Shepherds College. “I really loved my time at Shepherds. I saw how important it was for the students to get job opportunities so they could then become more independent.”

She also loved coffee shops and “the atmosphere of slowing down and coming together to have conversations and build relationships,” she says. She saw the opportunity for ministering to people in the community through Bible studies and employing people with IDDs. So I thought, Someday I should open a coffee shop.”

Brooke’s dream picked up steam when Brian Canright, vice president of expansion at Shepherds College, held an event at Moody and shared the Shepherds College mission. Afterwards, Brooke shared her dream with Brian of someday managing a coffee shop that hired individuals with intellectual disabilities.

Her five- to ten-year plan was to graduate from Moody and go back to school for a business degree before opening a coffee shop. But after studying abroad, she followed the Lord’s leading to move back home and continue her studies with Moody Bible Institute Distance Learning. That’s when Brian Canright of Shepherds called her about the café position, recalling their discussion at Moody a couple of years earlier. Brooke accepted the job and jumped right in.

“She is such a quality person, and such a perfect fit for this opportunity,” says Canright, who also hired Amanda Hughes ’17 to work at the college.

While the café was being built, Brooke worked with students in the college’s culinary program and observed teaching methods. She worked with a social enterprise company, Doing Good Works, to produce logos and branded merchandise. She also chose the drinks on the menu, experimented with a few recipes, and set up the café.

The idea for the coffee shop came from Scott Huedepohl, president and CEO of Community State Bank, who already was offering financial literacy training to Shepherds’ students. When the bank needed remodeling, Scott proposed a rent-free on-site café run by Shepherds College. They agreed.

“This is a very good opportunity for the community to come in and really connect with Shepherds,” he says. “To see these students working and being productive is really a cool thing.”

All café proceeds directly benefit the students of Shepherds College. According to Canright, 90 percent of Shepherds’ alumni find gainful employment after graduation, and 75 percent in their field of study! The national average for individuals with IDDs who have paid employment is only 36 percent.

Brooke is grateful to work with Shepherds students in the coffee shop. “The Bible says God knit us together in our mother’s wombs, and we are fearfully and wonderfully made,” she says. “That applies to everybody God created, even people with disabilities, and it’s for His purposes.”

She adds, “I’m looking forward to seeing the many ways God uses the Shepherds Community Café for His glory.”

Linda Piepenbrink is managing editor of Moody Alumni News.