Nonprofit Plans New Cafe & Mentor-Work Program In Levittown

A new cafe run by a nonprofit is working toward a spring opening in Levittown.

The nonprofit Peace Valley Holistic Center is planning a new mentor-work program at the former county crime lab in front of District Judge John Kelly’s district court on Trenton Road in Middletown’s Levittown section. The long-vacant 1,600-square-foot building is currently being rehabbed and will look totally different on the inside over the next few months.

The new cafe – likely to be called Peace Valley Community Cafe or something relative – will be similar in concept to a Starbucks and serve coffee, espresso, small baked goods and ice cream, said Donnamarie Davis, who is heading up the project.

The cafe has plans to open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will be staffed by assistant manager Matt Kelly and a mentor-work program participants who have special needs or ADHD. Davis will oversee the operations of the program.

While two mentor-work participants will start when the cafe opens, that number is expected to grow over time. The participants, according to Davis, will initially be from among those who seek services from the Peace Valley Holistic Center, but there are plans to work with other nonprofits to accept additional mentor-work participants over time.

“We’re going to start small and grow,” Davis said.

The mentor-work participants will be in their late teens and early 20s. The skills obtained at the cafe will help as they seek future employment, many with other local service businesses. The goal is to also empower the participants to find their talents and grow their character.

“We want to allow each [mentor-work participant] to work here as long as they need to. It could be two to three months or longer,” Davis said.

Young people with special needs age out of the school system and other programs. Often times, they lose some direction and have trouble finding something meaningful to keep them busy.

“They age out of the system at 21 and there’s nothing for them to do,” Davis said.

“What they’re learning here is transformative. They will not be ostracized somewhere eating cheetos and playing video games.”

Kelly, who has worked in food service, has been a development intern with Peace Valley Holistic Center before growing into his new job at the future cafe. He first came to know of Peace Valley Holistic Center as he dealt with a life-threatening rare blood disorder, type 1 congenital dyserythropoietic anemia, and anxiety.

The new cafe is something that Kelly is excited for as the opening approaches. He noted his experience in food service and working at Starbucks will help him as he tackles the assistant manager post at the new cafe.

The former crime lab building was not in the best of shape when Davis signed a low-cost 25-year lease with the county. Through the generosity of many businesses and individuals, the roughly $200,000 renovation is being done at little cost to the nonprofit. Starbucks is donating much of the equipment and Ernest Bock and Sons Inc. is carrying out much of the work with support from DPE Plumbing, QPI Electric, Gardner and Fox, Concrete Cutting Systems Inc., labor unions and other businesses.

Buz Harris, a recent retiree who is heading up the project for Ernest Bock and Sons, said the future cafe location is going to look a lot different in the coming months. Going through the facility, he explained the open concept of the cafe and detailed all the upgrades that have taken place over the past months. While there weren’t any surprise finds in the former crime lab, there were numerous walls that had to be ripped down.

Peace Valley Holistic Center was founded officially in 2010 by Davis’ mother, Dr. Christina Davis, and works to fuse holistic healing along with more conventional approaches to help those with special needs. The nonprofit is based in a more than 200-year-old farmhouse property rented from the county in Chalfont.

“There’s no magic wand, but we have a formula that works,” she said.

Davis, a federal litigator, said she had the vision for the cafe two years ago and could not get it out of her head. She worked with the Peace Valley Holistic Center’s partners to get the concept put together.

“This building is being repurposed into something positive and putting participants on a positive track,” Davis said.