school in Lake County for children with severe disabilities. At this school, the students could attend until they were 21, and many of them had hopes for a job. There, she also met parents who shared the same concerns Dempsey had for her daughter. She said these students are also a part of what inspired her to create PiesAbilities. “I’ve met a lot of parents who are excited about what we’re doing and want to support us and hope that we can get to a point where we can bring people on,” Dempsey said. Around October 2019, Dempsey did more research into becoming a business. PiesAbilities is not a nonprofit because, Dempsey said, she wants it to be a model for other profitable companies. “We’re not hiring people who have disabilities because we’re particularly nice people or we’re saints or we’re different from anybody else,” Dempsey said. “We’re business owners, and we have a bottom line. We need and want to make a profit.” Dempsey says that she thinks it intimidates employers to bring in people with disabilities because they think accommodations
will be expensive. However, those accommodations could be as easy as raising a table or converting instructions to Braille. PiesAbilities made an investment into equipment to help people with disabilities in the kitchen. They invested in a machine that helps form pie dough with just the turn of a crank. Joscelyn, who can only use her left hand, can make pie by herself with the machine. It’s a simple tool that allows them to make up to 250 pies an hour. “It’s really just finding the person who’s a good fit, and then figuring out what you can change, so that they can access what they need to do the job,” Dempsey said. PiesAbilities, which Jocelyn sometimes refers to as her business, has made pies for farmer’s markets, weddings and local restaurants since its inception in January. Like many local businesses, PiesAbilities ceased production during the COVID-19 pandemic. During that time, however, Dempsey had virtual baking classes on the PiesAbilities’ Facebook. If you’re interested in purchasing a pie in the future, you can place an order at piesabilities.com.
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