Our Story
Sharing the gifts and talents of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) with the world.
In 2016, Father Chris Donley brought a group of high school students on a mission trip to Mustard Seed Communities, a home that provides loving, lifelong care for over 600 residents who live with a range of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in Kingston, Jamaica.
While we had come as missionaries to serve, we quickly discovered that these residents, the most vulnerable who are so often overlooked by society, were actually moving the mountains in our hearts that separated us from loving God and others more fully. What began as a mission to help others became a profound lesson in receiving - watching our students experience this transformation trip revealed a universal truth: when we create spaces for people with IDD to share their gifts, they help us far more than we help them.
Back in Pittsburgh, we began praying for a way to bring this mission home, to create opportunities for our local IDD community to share their extraordinary gifts. Our prayers were answered when we met Patrick Fitzgerald.
Patrick is a dynamic young man who lives with autism and has a passion for baking cookies. Although he was a 2018 graduate of Community College's food service program and an extremely hard worker, Patrick was one of the 77.3% of adults with IDD not in the workforce. His parents, Mike and Terri, had been praying daily that Patrick would find meaningful employment and when they heard about Father Chris's work with people with IDD, they reached out to share an idea that was brewing.
At the time, Father Chris was already serving as pastor of Divine Mercy Parish, running the Red Door soup kitchen, and leading Move A Mountain Missions. Walking into that coffee meeting, he was determined to say no to whatever proposition awaited him -- his plate was more than full. But when the Fitzgeralds shared their dream to open a coffee shop that employs adults with IDD, Father Chris knew this was a perfect fit and aligned profoundly with the truth we discovered in Jamaica - that people with IDD have extraordinary gifts to share with the world. Without hesitation, Father Chris responded, "I'm all in."
From that moment forward, Father Chris and our entire team at Move A Mountain have remained all in, willing to do whatever it takes to turn this transformative vision into reality.
Through Patrick's hard work and the generosity of our supporters, we have been able to welcome many more team members to our family. Brother Andre's had humble beginnings, with Patrick serving his delicious freshly baked cookies and coffee at Divine Mercy Parish's annual fish fry. We planned our grand opening for April 2020, but the Covid-19 pandemic forced us to pivot. During that time of uncertainty, we developed an online store which launched in October 2020 with Patrick as our first team member. A year later, we hosted our grand opening on October 2, 2021, now with six amazing team members.
Through the extraordinary generosity of our supporters, we built a fully accessible bar that enabled team members of all abilities to be behind the bar serving in a variety of roles. We successfully launched our Occupational Therapy Vocational Program to help team members overcome plateaus in function and reach new levels of independence. The cafe’s momentum was building in every way we had hoped. And with the growth of our café, we had to find a way to bring more team members on board.
In 2025, we opened a second location of Brother Andre’s Café at Assumption Church in Bellevue. We now employ 25 adults with IDD between our two locations and continue to grow!
"It is with the smallest brushes that the Artist paints the best paintings."