CLEVELAND — Confection Connection is a wholesale bakery in the Cleveland suburb of Brunswick.

What You Need To Know

  • Confection Connection is a wholesale bakery that employs adults with disabilities

  • The employees receive real world training on-site every work day

  • You can purchase bulk orders from the bakery

This shop has a sweet twist. All of its creations are made with love by employees with disabilities, like Brittany Bonsell.

“You’ve got lovely people, you’ve got lovely pastries,” said Brittany Bonsell, a baker at the shop. “I just feel safe in this environment, too. I just love it here.”

Although the nonprofit bakery prides itself on giving individuals with disabilities real-world training, Bonsell said she does not see herself or her coworkers as disabled in the traditional sense.

“Well, I personally don’t see it as a disability,” she said. “We just have a little bit of things that we need to get over. Like steps, some steps are higher for us, like stairs.”

Bakery Operations Manager Izzie Foxwoodcock said the main goal of Confection Connection is to show the world that people with different abilities can do anything.

“A lot of it is showing the other places within the community that they are just as capable as anyone else of doing the work,” Foxwoodcock said. “Because [employers] have this whole untapped employment base that they don’t even take into consideration a lot of times.”

The employees do two hours of unpaid life-skills training and three hours of paid work per day.

“It teaches us about the real world and how our jobs are..., just how real life is and real life jobs because it deals with actual customers who come in,” Bonsell said.

If you would like to place a bulk order of treats for your next meeting or party, you can order over the phone or online.