Lighthouse Manufacturing Program

The Lighthouse for the Blind industrial manufacturing program has been designed to accomplish three goals: create competitive jobs for individuals who are visually impaired, provide an arena that allows for progressive job skill training, and educate the community, blind and sighted alike, about the capabilities and exceptional performance of individuals who are visually impaired. By accomplishing these goals, the Lighthouse for the Blind furthers its mission to foster dedication, pride, and independence in those who have visual disabilities.

On a tour of our facility, you would witness visually impaired individuals operating some of the same ultra-modern high-speed equipment found in any competitive manufacturing facility to produce paper cups, paper towels, and pillowcases. The Lighthouse for the Blind takes pride in its employees’ abilities to not only operate the same equipment but to do so with a precision and efficiency that allows us to be price competitive with much larger companies who do not employ individuals with disabilities.

The Federal Government is our largest customer, through contracts with the General Services Administration and military base stores. These contracts are part of the Ability One Program, made possible by the Javitz-Wagner-O’Day legislation, and help create jobs as well as generate revenue used to support the wide variety of services we offer to the visually impaired community.

At our main campus in New Orleans, Louisiana, we manufacture paper towels, repackage kitchen and bathroom scrubbers, as well as paper plates and molded fiber trays. Visually impaired individuals shine as supervisors, machine operators, packers, material handlers, and in data processing positions.

In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, we produce many different sizes of hot and cold paper cups. These cups include a line of environmentally friendly biodegradable cups.  Available cup sizes range from 5oz to 32oz.  Visually impaired individuals produce these cups in positions such as machine operators, material handlers and packers.

In our facility in Gulfport, Mississippi, we make pillowcases and Navy deck swabs. Visually impaired individuals are employed in Gulfport as machine operators, sewers, equipment maintenance technicians, janitors mop winders and packers.

With these three manufacturing plants, the Lighthouse for the Blind employs over 85 visually impaired individuals, who have a combined payroll of 2.9 million dollars.

Technology remains an ever-changing entity, which means the Lighthouse must continue to evolve and expand in order to best serve the needs of our customers and exceed the expectations of our employees. We must continue to innovate by developing new products and services to meet and anticipate customer requirements.

As the Lighthouse for the Blind continues to grow, we require dedicated individuals at all three of our locations. If you or someone you know has a visual impairment, we urge you to contact our Human Resources department or our Supported Employment Services department for more information about joining our team.  You can also check out our current employment opportunities by clicking the Employment Opps button at the left.