Opening Doors: Why Everyone Deserves the Chance to Work
How meaningful work builds confidence and independence — and what we can do to open more doors for people with disabilities.
Published: Oct 11, 2026
A job gives us much more than a paycheck. It helps us build new skills, form meaningful relationships, and discover what we’re capable of. Taking on responsibility builds confidence, especially when we know someone is counting on us.
I’ve long believed that everyone deserves the chance to work. Yet millions of Americans with disabilities face obstacles to finding employment. Biases and limited access to training can make the search needlessly difficult. Many spend years knocking on a door that has yet to open.
That reality is why National Disability Employment Awareness Month, observed each October, is so important. It calls attention to the barriers that still make it difficult for many people with disabilities to find meaningful work.
This year’s theme, “Celebrating Value and Talent,” gets to the heart of the month: recognizing what people with disabilities bring to the workplace and expanding their opportunities to put those talents to work. For my family, that lesson became personal years ago with my brother, Kevin.
Wanting the chance to work
Growing up with Kevin gave me a front-row seat to many of these challenges. Kevin was born with a developmental disability, and from an early age he wanted to be included in whatever was going on around him.
As he grew older, he wanted the responsibility and social benefits that can come with having a job. Kevin had plenty to offer, and very few places were set up to put his abilities to work. Back then, however, those opportunities were especially hard to find.
I often think about my parents and the nights they spent awake worrying about Kevin’s future. What would his life look like as an adult, especially after they were gone? I know millions of parents are asking similar questions about their own children today.
Watching Kevin make his way in the world shaped my siblings and me, and it’s a big part of why I was so glad years later to help create more opportunities for people like him through Smile Farms.
Putting abilities to work
My family and I founded Smile Farms in 2015 with the belief that people like Kevin deserved the chance to work. What began as a small horticultural program has grown considerably, and I’ve had the privilege of watching that progress up close.
I’ve seen what having a job can mean in the lives of our Smile Farmers. Along with earning a paycheck, they develop new skills and relationships, as well as experience what it feels like to have teammates counting on them. Their families get to watch them become more confident and independent, sometimes taking steps they once wondered if they would ever see.
Smile Farms now has 16 campuses in the New York metro area, with Smile Farmers working in gardens and greenhouses as well as restaurants and other businesses. They grow produce, make products such as Heat with Heart hot sauce, and gain skills that prepare them for other jobs.
Kevin still participates and has become knowledgeable about agriculture along the way. In fact, when our family gets together and the conversation inevitably turns to “shop,” he has plenty to contribute from his own work experience.
Kevin is hardly the only person I’ve watched flourish. Hundreds of Smile Farmers have shown us how far an opportunity to work can take someone. A few weeks ago, I saw a particularly powerful example at Smile Farms’ annual Golf Invitational.
What a first job makes possible
Nick joined Smile Farms last November, and it was his first job. He has autism and experiences social anxiety, and he has told the team that becoming more independent is important to him. Today, he works in the garden at St. Catherine of Siena Hospital and spends one day a week helping in the Smile Farms office.
At the Invitational, Nick stood in front of a room filled with golfers and supporters and shared his story. Speaking before a large crowd was a big step for him, and when he finished, everyone in the room rose to give him a standing ovation.
Afterward, several parents told our team that watching Nick gave them hope for their own children’s futures. They already knew what their children were capable of. Nick gave them a glimpse of where their children’s abilities might lead when those children are given the chance to put those abilities to work.
Opening the next door
I wish my parents could have seen Nick. After spending so many years wondering what adulthood would look like for Kevin, I think they would have understood what that moment meant. Here was a young man who had been given his first opportunity to work and was already discovering where it could take him.
Families asking those same questions today know that their children have much to contribute and hope to see them build lives with greater independence and purpose. Stories like Nick’s offer a glimpse of what their futures might hold.
More people deserve the chance to discover where a first job can lead. Employers can help by reconsidering assumptions and recognizing the abilities that too often go overlooked. When given the chance, people like Nick are ready to show us what they can do.
All the best,
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Written by 1-800-Flowers.com Founder and Chairman, the Celebrations Pulse letters aim to engage with our community. By welcoming your ideas and sharing your stories, we want to help you strengthen your relationships with the most important people in your life.
AUTHOR
Jim McCann is the founder and chairman of 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. as well as a business leader, author, and philanthropist with a passion for helping people deliver smiles. Devoted to helping others, he also founded Smile Farms, a 501(c)3 organization that provides meaningful jobs in agricultural settings to young adults and adults with developmental disabilities.
