Inside the new Charlie Foster’s coffee shop in Huntsville, Alabama. Photo by Rocket City Digital, courtesy of Charlie Foster’s.
A cheery coffee shop in West Huntsville, Alabama, called Charlie Foster’s is serving as an inspirational counter its location’s exploitative industrial past. Bursting with pinks, reds and cream colors, the shop is serving well-crafted coffee drinks, while providing training and employment for people with special needs.
Roughly half of the 18-person staff at Charlie Foster’s is composed of people of special needs, a model Charlie Foster’s Co-Owner Austin Jenkins pursued in keeping with the spirit of the Merrimack Hall Performing Arts Center, the arts education nonprofit founded by his parents Alan and Debra Jenkins.