Village of Merici is a non-profit organization that provides service for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Providing residential and community opportunities for adults with developmental disabilities, the Village of Merici strives to create a community while also finding opportunities to strengthen their work and overall life skills. 

Cathedral’s Chris Beaty ‘00 Entrepreneurship Class operates the coffee house and spent much of their time last year creating new drinks, advertising, and most importantly working on creating a new partnership. Cathedral wanted to find a way to honor two of Core Values: Inclusivity and Diversity.  

Starting this year, Village of Merici clients began volunteering at Johnny Mac’s. These new staff members are making a great impact towards the coffee house and its community. The staff from the Village of Merici help with restocking and assist student workers who need an extra hand. 

The volunteers from Village of Merici have been a huge help and always make sure to embrace their work. From the start of their partnership to now, the staff are always excited and energetic during training and never passing up the opportunity to learn new skills.

Starting this year, Johnny Mac’s schedule has made a huge adjustment from last year’s hours. The coffee house  is now open every day of the week, from 8am until 1:30pm.

Johnny Mac’s Student President, Charlise Gibson ‘26 said “The coffee house  has definitely changed, that’s a definite. I was there from the beginning as a freshman, and we had no idea how to really do anything.”

As Johnny Mac’s improves and continues to grow, so does the menu. Johnny Mac’s Menu expands in items, there are now cookies, iced coffees, hot coffees, hot chocolate, frozen lemonades and iced lemonades. From the start of this project to now, the coffee house has improved significantly and have new improvements that weren’t expected from the start, including the partnership.