22/10/2026
Last week, our founder Laura Holland attended the first Social Procurement Conference, “Connecting Public Procurement and Social Enterprise: Unlocking Social Value”, to share the journey of The Lilac Café & Microbakery and Rising Together.
Laura spoke about how her lived experience as a mother of a son with an intellectual disability, alongside her background in hospitality and business development, inspired our work.
Through baking, catering and customer service, we create training and supported employment pathways for adults with intellectual disabilities.
Every catering order creates opportunities to build skills, grow confidence and take steps towards paid employment. Recurring orders help us plan training, staffing and future employment opportunities.
Laura also shared how relationships with organisations including the University of Limerick and UL Engage have helped open early procurement opportunities.
Thank you to Sarah Hoffman for the invitation, Richard Deane for his warm welcome, and Pobal for an insightful event. A special thank you to Siobhan Cafferty for her encouragement and support in preparing our business for social procurement.
It was encouraging to hear Minister Jerry Buttimer acknowledge the contribution of social enterprises and the need for further start-up funding, alongside insights from Ciara Bates and Edwina Steele and the introduction of practical toolkits.
It was a pleasure to share the case study session with James McConville of ACT, and to hear Aoise Keogan-Nooshabadi’s thoughtful reflections on both our journeys.
Thank you to everyone who connected with us on the day!
Real work. Real skills. Real inclusion.
Limerick
