Dog Tag Bakery Will Serve Up Treats, Training And Learning Facility For Disabled Veterans And Spouses

Do-Good Bakery

Most bakeries make confectionary goodies, but a new D.C. bakery will also specialize in giving back to disabled veterans.

Dog Tog Bakery, which is expected open on Georgetown in February 2014, will run a program to hire disabled veterans and their spouses to work at the business during the day and take courses at the School of Continuing Studies at Georgetown University at night.

The goal of the business: To help those veterans accrue the skills to "go out and open their own small business," says Father Rick Curry, the founder of the bakery and the director of the Academy for Veterans at Georgetown University, in a YouTube video.

Curry, who was once the subject of a "60 Minutes" special about a theater program for the physically disabled and played a small role in an episode of "Monk" as a therapist, told Washingtonian that the bakery will admit a dozen veterans and their spouses each year into the program and is actively recruiting at local veterans hospitals.

"We’re recruiting from Walter Reed Medical Center and from the [Veterans Affairs Medical Center]," Curry said, adding that the bakery's website has contact information veterans can use to get in touch with him about the program.

And Curry has done this before. He ran a similar program with disabled veterans while in Maine.

Curry is no stranger to baking. "When I first joined the jesuits, they sent me to the bakery to become a baker. I had never been a baker but I liked it and continued to create recipes" Curry told The Huffington Post. He wrote a book, "The Secrets of Jesuit Breadmaking," that combines recipes for baking bread with Curry's own take on the spirituality of bread-making, that was published in 1995.

The bakery will also host a small stage, a continuation of Curry's love for theater.

And while the idea is to sell delicious baked goods -- all kinds of bread and even dog biscuits -- it's really all about giving back to those who have served.

"Our men and women in uniform do so much for us. While this cannot fully repay the debt we owe them, we hope they find gain some valuable experience with us that can help them in either the near term or long term future," Curry told an audience that gathered at Cafe Milano for the unveiling of the initiative last week.

Check out pictures from the unveiling of the bakery at a special luncheon at Cafe Milano in Georgetown!

Checking out renovations

Unveiling of the Dog Tag Bakery at Cafe Milano

Before You Go

Robert Jones, a US Marine Chief Warrant Officer, l

Veterans Day

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