Café with Soul & Bucks County family funding major enhancements at PABC Teaching Lab

Doylestown, Pa. – May 30, 2024 – Café with Soul and a Bucks County family are donating $120,000 to support major enhancements to the teaching lab at the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center (PABC), which is used by high school students from the Central Bucks School District and other high schools across the region.

The funds, which will pay for new advanced scientific instruments, equipment and supplies that students use for both instructional and applied research, have been donated by Café with Soul, a nonprofit restaurant with a charitable mission.

“This gift is a testament to my interaction with the student group and professors within the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center,” Joel Zazyczny, the restaurant’s founder, said. “The mission of Café with Soul is to transform the lives of children, teens and young adults by creating opportunities for students by working closely with the Central Bucks community to offer resources to promote STEM and music education that will proactively drive inspiration, transformation and sustainable progress toward rewarding careers that improve the world.”

The teaching lab’s primary users are juniors and seniors in Central Bucks School District’s three high schools who are enrolled in the Advanced Placement (AP) Chemistry course taught by award-winning teacher Mark Hayden. The lab also is used for a summer program at the PABC for students across Bucks County and beyond.

“We are extremely grateful for this very generous gift, which we’ll use to take the teaching lab to the next level,” Louis P. Kassa III, MPA, president and CEO of the PABC, said. “Top-quality research equipment needs to be updated regularly and that’s the main reason why this gift from the Zazyczny family and Café with Soul is so exciting.”

The Zazyczny family’s three children all graduated from Central Bucks High School East, earned college degrees and have since embarked on very successful careers. Their love of music, which is shared by their parents, inspired Joel to open the nonprofit Café with Soul, with which the restaurant’s proceeds are dedicated to supporting the music and STEM programs in the Central Bucks School District.

The district’s AP Chemistry program enrolls more than 30 students annually. Their achievements are amazing, according to Mark Hayden, who has run the program since its launch six years ago.

“It has been my honor to have a front-row seat for the incredible results that have come from our innovative partnership with PABC,” Hayden said. “The authentic and immersive research experiences have provided our students with career-readiness and technical skills that are highly sought after in today’s competitive post-secondary and career environments. We are greatly appreciative of the support from Café with Soul and the Zazyczny Family, which will enable our learners to continue pursuing the most cutting-edge areas of study.”

The teaching lab donation from Café with Soul was announced at the AP Chemistry program’s annual year-end celebration, held March 30 at the PABC. Along with the students, those present included many of their parents, Central Bucks School District leaders, the PABC’s Lou Kassa and former Congressman Jim Greenwood, who was the keynote speaker. Greenwood is a Bucks County resident and was CEO of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, better known as BIO, the world’s largest biotech and life sciences trade association, for 15 years.

About Café with Soul

Opening its doors on Aug. 19, 2019, Café with Soul, a nonprofit restaurant located at 800 N. Easton Road in Doylestown, Pa., has brought a little bit of “SOUL” to the Central Bucks County PA community. Café with Soul serves all-day breakfast and lunch, and is dedicated to transforming the lives of children, teens and young adults and has set about the task of creating opportunities for students by working closely with the Central Bucks community to offer resources in the form of financially supported programming and scholarships to promote music and STEM education that will proactively drive inspirational, transformative and sustainable progress toward rewarding careers that improve the world.

About the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center 

Ranked as one of the nation’s most successful life sciences incubators, the PABC operates two facilities. Headquartered in Doylestown, the PABC operates B+labs at Cira Centre, a two-year old facility in University City, Philadelphia. There are nearly 70 companies at the two locations, and both are filled to capacity with a waiting list of other life sciences companies interested in locating at a PABC facility. Located in Doylestown, Pa., in the heart of the Philadelphia-New Jersey pharma belt, the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center (PABC) is a nonprofit life sciences incubator-accelerator providing state-of-the-art laboratory and office space to nearly 50 early stage biotech companies on site. Another 50 organizations are members of the PABC, which also operates B+labs at Cira Centre in Philadelphia, where 19 companies have operations. The PABC uses a highly successful services-based approach to nurture and guide its member companies to success, advancing biotechnology, maximizing synergies among nonprofit scientists and their commercial colleagues, and launching new ideas and discoveries. PABC companies account for 17% of all National Institutes of Health SBIR grants awarded in Pennsylvania and over the years have created billions of dollars in market value from IPOs, acquisitions and commercial valuations. For more information, please visit the PABC website.