Zo Much More is a family-owned and operated social enterprise powered by Zoe Spiegel - a young woman on the autism spectrum. We have always believed that Zoe, like so many other ASD individuals, was capable of so much more than she was often given credit for. We started this endeavor to provide a platform to allow her to demonstrate her potential and hopefully create a model for others. Zo Much More is all about focusing on Zoe’s strengths.

As a result, Zo Much More will have some traditional elements of a business - and some decidedly less so. We hope it will be a means for fulfillment personally and eventually to some degree financially - both for Zoe’s benefit and for us to donate 20% of any revenue to other organizations who share our passion for ensuring meaningful opportunities (employment, social, recreational, housing etc.) are as available to adults on the autism spectrum as they are to anyone else. Our plan is to choose a different organization for a period of time - and make the donation at the end of that timeframe.

Zo Much More starts with Zoe’s strengths and interests and goes from there. Zoe loves to wear bracelets. She typically wears as many as she possibly can on each wrist. Along the way, we discovered that she was also quite adept at making them; she started making them for friends and to mark holidays or special occasions - and with that, the first Zo Much More product was born!

When Halloween approached in 2020, our town suggested leaving individual packages of candy out on the driveway for trick or treaters rather than having trick or treaters come up to the door and choose from a communal bowl to help maintain social distancing. By chance, Zoe had a whole day off from school the week before Halloween so we decided to try making bags with a few pieces of candy in each one. She picked up the process so quickly and we thought we might just be on to something. We tested the theory by volunteering for some projects at our Temple including putting together vaccination kits for kids under 5 when they got their COVID vaccines, helping with Purim baskets for the congregation and making bagged lunches for a homeless shelter. From these projects, we discovered that Zoe is super fast at this type of work, has a knack for quality control and seems to enjoy the process - and with that we knew that swag bag/kit creation was a natural first service for Zo Much More to offer!

Finally, we’d be remiss if we didn’t give credit to her Needham High team of educators who enabled her to participate in some general education art-related electives during her senior year. We’d written “art”off years ago because (1) genetics and (2) Zoe had been wildly unsuccessful and disinterested in coloring, painting etc., but these courses allowed her to showcase strengths we never would have known about otherwise. As we think about Zoe’s future, there is a very real possibility that these general education opportunities will prove to be quite literally life-changing. Inclusion truly does matter. We are beyond grateful.

We have no doubt that we will discover Zo Much More about Zoe and her abilities as time goes on - so look for our product and service offerings to grow as well.