Brooklyn Center teen with autism mans his own snack shack

A simple summer project turned into a life-changing endeavor for an autistic teen from Brooklyn Center, Minnesota.

Living with both autism and ADHD, 14-year-old Donovan Hoxtell struggles in a traditional classroom, so his aide came up with the idea for him to man a snack shack called “Quick Shop,” where he offers reasonable prices and excellent customer service in his popular hallway pit stop at Brooklyn Center's LEAP summer program.

Donovan not only prices all the items, but he goes with his aide to Sam's Club to purchase the merchandise. The aide helps him figure out what their revenue was that week, what they can spend, and how to price it to make sure they aren't losing money.

Donovan's Quick Shop is set up Monday through Thursday from around 8:45 am to 11:45 am.

Donovan's aide says they would like to see the program go into the school year and open it up to other kids from the special education department.