Labor Source 30 for 30 - Celestial Seasonings

Labor Source, the supported employment division of Imagine!’s CORE/Labor Source department, is celebrating its 30th Anniversary this year.

To celebrate this important milestone, each week I am publicly thanking and recognizing Labor Source’s many local business partners.

Supported employment offers people who have a disability the opportunity to develop vital job skills and become active participants in their communities. The benefits extend far beyond helping our clients, however. Businesses using our services are able to reduce recruitment and training expenses as they benefit from a diversified employee pool. Partnering with CORE/Labor Source is a “win-win” situation that is beneficial all around.

We are very grateful to our business partners who have demonstrated their commitment to Imagine!’s mission by employing CORE/Labor Source participants.

Today’s Labor Source 30 for 30 partner highlight: Celestial Seasonings.

In 1969, a group of passionate young entrepreneurs founded Celestial Seasonings upon the belief that their flavorful, all-natural herbal teas could help people live healthier lives. They harvested fresh herbs from the Rocky Mountains by hand, and then dried, blended and packaged them in hand-sewn muslin bags to be sold at local health food stores. By staying committed to their vision, the founders of Celestial Seasonings turned their cottage industry into an almost overnight success. Today, Celestial Seasonings is one of the largest specialty tea manufacturers in North America. They serve more than 1.6 billion cups of tea every year, and source more than 100 different ingredients from over 35 countries to create delicious, all-natural herbal, green, red, white, chai and wellness teas. But most importantly, they're still about people and passion.

Over the past year, Celestial Seasonings has employed 20 CORE/Labor Source participants at various times. The CLS crew runs the Kombucha bottling line and also packages Kombucha energy shots. Pictured below is Bell, who is keeping a steady supply of boxes coming to others on the crew to fill with bottles of Kombucha.

 Thanks to everyone at Celestial Seasonings for their commitment to our community and for providing employment opportunities for individuals with intellectual disabilities.