Gabi's - Powered by Special Abilities

Gabi's employs adults with special abilities, and the operation runs on two legs: Gabi's Grounds is the coffee brand, and Gabi's PALS is a packing and fulfillment service for small businesses. Mary Angelini leads the team along with Gabi herself. Corporate clients and volunteers come to the Pylon Drive facility in Raleigh to pack, label, and ship orders alongside the staff, which is part of what the nonprofit offers as a team-building day with substance.

The coffee side is a dark roast catalog rather than a specialty single-origin lineup. That's the order: a bag of the dark roast, by mail or in person, with the understanding that you are buying the mission as much as the bean. The fulfillment side is the other reason small businesses end up here, contracting Gabi's PALS to handle packing and shipping for their own products on terms that fund the special-abilities employment.

Who it suits: customers and businesses who want their coffee purchase or fulfillment contract to support employment for adults with special abilities, and groups looking for a volunteer day that produces real shipped orders by the end of it rather than a generic photo opportunity. Not a walk-in cafe. The work happens at the warehouse on Pylon Drive, and the coffee ships from there.