Transitioning into adulthood can be hard. Doing it with a disability can feel impossible. Taylor Gardner Chaney understood this when she realized her little sister, Lindsay, born with Down syndrome, deserved much more.
“When you’re an individual with a disability in the State of Nevada, you can stay in school up until you’re 22. At that point, you’re left to navigate on your own,” says Chaney. “When I left high school, it was like, ‘Do I want to travel? What job do I want to have? What do I want to study in school?’ I had all of these opportunities at my fingertips. My sister being around the same age, it was like, ‘Wait, what? These are her opportunities?’ I don’t even know if you would call them that.”
Unsatisfied with available resources, Chaney created the Garden Foundation (thegardenfoundationlv.org), a Las Vegas nonprofit aimed at helping adults with disabilities to learn to live their lives to the fullest, through vocational training, recreational classes and acts of community service. In 2022, she went a step further by opening Dig It! Coffee, a Downtown shop where adults with disabilities serve the best in coffee class.
The Weekly spoke with Chaney about inclusion, being proudly atypical, how a vocational training program transforms into a business and more.
Dig It! Coffee opened in 2022, but before that, you were already experimenting with on-the-go coffee at the Garden Foundation. How did Dig It! evolve?
I was just trying to recreate opportunities for people with disabilities that I had in my typical life as an adult. I looked at that and said, “I also have the choice to explore careers and work and find fulfillment. How can we do that and teach these skills in a supportive environment?” We wanted people to work with money, [to have] these transferable skills … and we did that by making our own coffee. We were teaching those skills and pushing a cart through our office building at the Garden Foundation. I got to see our people having so much fun. They love being in the community, they love meeting new people. They’re finding a lot of value when they’re serving that cup of coffee. But what I got to see, too, were people who may not have ever had an experience with a person with a disability. They were having this experience of … It just made my whole morning getting my coffee from Sarah, which wasn’t that different from getting it from Joe at Starbucks. This experience was meaningful for me.
About two years in, when we started working at these pop-up events and farmers markets, I was like, “We cannot make this much coffee. This is crazy to go out to a 5K [race] and we’re brewing in a coffee pot.” So the owner of Sin City [Coffee & Beverage] met with me at the Garden Foundation. He said, “I will bring you free coffee. Let me know what you need and when you have events and the coffee is yours. I love what you’re doing. I believe in what you’re doing.” I said, “One day, I’m gonna have a shop, and I’m gonna be able to pay you.” To this day, we still work for him. And I held up my end of the bargain.
That’s amazing. So in some cases, this is your employees’ first job?
Yes, I would say for 75% of our employees, if not more, it’s their first job. Jobs that are typically given to people with disabilities … are segregated. They might be in a workshop-type setting where people are stuffing packets, or shredding paper or folding towels and doing these very menial, repetitive tasks. Subminimum wage is still legal here in the state of Nevada, which means that you’re legally able to pay people with disabilities under minimum wage. And when I say under, I mean drastically, disgustingly under. It could be as low as 30 cents. It’s not even close to living wage. So to be able to not only offer people a job that is purposeful, that they find meaning in, that they’re included in the community, that it’s a job that their typical peers have as well and that … people are paid an equitable wage, it’s literally the dream.
The shop itself has such a unique vibe. I love the 2 Chainz song quote “I’m different, yeah I’m different” on the walls. What’s the story behind that?
I wanted this to be such a fun and funky place. We’re not a charity. I wanted people to really want to come here whether you were into the mission or not. That you wanted to love our coffee, you wanted to think that the vibe was so cool, and it was one of the most aesthetically pleasing cafes in Vegas. But with 2 Chainz, I also just wanted it to be meaningful and to speak to who we are. It’s embracing this whole, “Yeah, I’m not the same, and I actually love it.” I’ve always wanted to really celebrate people’s differences. The other sign that we have in there is “Not typical.” I don’t want to be your typical coffee shop, I don’t want to be your typical employee. We’re taking a spin on, oh, it’s different, but it’s a great different.
We actually mentioned Dig It! in the Weekly’s 2023 coffee issue because of its mad scientist coffee creations, like the dirt cup latte with gummy worms. How do you come up with these?
I wanted to appeal on all levels. I wanted it to be kind of kid-like, nostalgic and very playful. My sister loves gummy bears. It’s like her trademark. We have gummy bear wallpaper in the bathroom, and we also have a gummy bear lemonade. Those are kind of in honor of her. It’s not really what people think of when they think of disability. People are often intimidated, or it’s a very serious topic, and you don’t want to talk about it. I wanted to make it the complete opposite of that.
There’s a lot of misconceptions around disabilities. This place knocks them all down.
Obviously I love being unique, and I love what we’ve done, but my hope is that the community doesn’t [just think], “Wow, Dig It! is this amazing, special thing because they do this.” I hope it’s normalized. I hope that we show people that this representation can be duplicated anywhere, and it’s not just Jacob working our front counter. He could work yours too and give people a great experience. I hope that if someone wants to work at a clothing store or a race car track, or whatever that looks like, that someone could say, they could do that too. They have the skill set. They’re super capable and can provide a really cool experience for people because they’re just people like us. They just want to find value and happiness.
How is Dig It! doing business wise? I know you had some issues this year with all the construction happening in front of your shop.
I’m gonna be so honest with you, it’s nearly killed us. We’re still kind of in the depths of it. It’s been absolutely horrible. January will be month 10. We were six months open when the construction started. Any new business is going to have a first year that’s like, we’ve got to get our feet under us. I feel like our legs were just chopped out from underneath us with this construction. I had no idea it was coming. I’ve had to cut everyone’s hours. We’ve had to cut store hours. I’m doing everything I can to just keep people employed. They’ve told us now it’s supposed to be [finished in] January. I’m really just trying to hang on.
Fingers crossed. Once we’re past the construction, do you think we might see more Dig It! Coffee locations?
That is totally my goal. There are a few coffee shops on the East Coast that hire people with disabilities and that do different things. We have nothing on the West Coast.The amount of applications I receive, I literally could cry because people just want this opportunity. They just want to be in a positive supportive place where they’re like, if I need extra help, I’m not gonna get fired. No one’s gonna look at me differently or they actually will take me in an interview and take me seriously and not talk to me like I’m a child. The work horror stories that I’ve heard from our people are absolutely heartbreaking. I will keep creating Dig It!’s if I can, to just be able to provide people opportunities.
DIG IT! COFFEE 1300 S. Casino Center Blvd. #110, 702-246-2331, digitcoffeeco.com. Tuesday-Friday, 9 a.m.-2 p.m.; Saturday & Sunday, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
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