Her cafe offered an opportunity for her daughter – and for others with intellectual disabilities

Maeve’s Place serves up hearty meals and provides a place where workers with disabilities can find meaning and belonging

The menu at Maeve’s Place, a cozy coffee shop nestled in the Catskill mountains, is far more extensive than that of your traditional java joint. On offer are eggs any style you wish, a range of pastries and eight types of mac and cheese. The kitchen isn’t the main point, though.

Iva Walsh, a single mother of four who immigrated to the US from the Czech Republic in the late 1980s, opened the upstate New York establishment in 2018 to provide work opportunities for individuals with intellectual disabilities. Her roster of nine employees includes her 26-year-old daughter, after whom the business is named. Walsh’s son, Daniel Hellmayer, a 41-year-old Culinary Institute of America graduate, works at the cafe as a full-time chef.

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