MILTON - Each Wednesday, about a half-dozen special needs individuals gather at Country Heritage Park to learn some new skills.
But rather than sitting in a classroom and listening to a teacher speak in front of a whiteboard, their lessons are filtered through the culinary arts.
The Dream Kitchen is a pilot project that was dreamt up – in the literal sense – by former Milton Optimist Club president Keith Lamson. He teamed up with CHP, the Special Friends Network and the Halton Down’s Syndrome Association to make the dream a reality.
Through this collaboration, chef Brandon Bousfield – a 30-year veteran of the industry – imparts his knowledge to prepare students for the workforce. Along with culinary lessons, he teaches transferable skills like health and hygiene, safety, proportions and technique.
Basic math skills go from theory to practicum, and they even learn to shed their fear of the stove, if they have one.
They also learn about having a community spirit. The food they create at Dream Kitchen goes to the Milton Optimist Club and Food For Life, both of whom pass it on to those in need.
Part of the motivation for Lamson to bring these people together had to do with the lack of job opportunities for those with neuro-developmental disorders.
“When they do get employment, they’re looked at with, and these are my words, stink eyes because they look different or whatever the case may be,” he told Milton Today. “I was a corporate manager of a safety team. My whole job was removing barriers.”
On Aug. 14 – day 32 of the pilot program – students helped pack desserts for those in need and learned how to make apple crumbles. In the past, they’ve made spaghetti and meatballs, pizza and salads – among other dishes.
They start their day with, under their own initiative, washing their hands, putting on hair coverings and gloves, cleaning their workstations and more. As many were shy in the first days of the lessons, Bousfield knew that socialization would be paramount.
“What I started out with was every different vegetable. I'd hold it up and I'd say, ‘what is this?’ I’d make everyone say its name and pass it down the line,”Bousfield said in explaining his methods. “Then I’d show them the utensils so they would know them. And then I would say, ‘OK, go get a spatula, so they would know that.”
The atmosphere can best be described as having the warmth of a campfire circle combined with the sense of purpose of a community non-profit. There is no Gordon Ramsay-like haranguing like on Hell’s Kitchen. The apprentice chefs work in a relaxed, helpful, hands-on environment.
There is some gentle firmness, however. As a way to simulate a real-life restaurant kitchen, Lamson roleplays as a strict restaurant manager and Bousfield a head chef. Through this, students get a sense of what a boss expects, how a chain of command works and how work ethic translates to positive outcomes and rewards.
The goal is to work them up to a skill level where they can be taken to see the real fast-paced environment of an actual kitchen.
“A few of them are at a point where we’re asking, ‘can we get hands-on real-life experience in a kitchen”,’” Lamson said. “Now let’s see if we can find a restaurant in the real world that will allow us to be in there so that they can see the fast pace, the real noise and people shouting orders.”
Jacob Stretton, one of chef Bousfield’s pupils, can now help his mother in the kitchen. When asked about what his favourite part of that is, he said “helping my mom,” nearly bringing tears to his eye. His favourite part of Dream Kitchen is “making drinks.”
Karen Drexler, Jacob’s mother and a peer coordinator with the HDSA, noticed a difference in her son quickly. He now wants to be in the kitchen and “using the skills he now has.”
He also is more disciplined, as evidenced by his “getting up early in the morning and getting everything he needs ready to get here and getting here on time.”
Elaine Cray, founder of SFN, also noticed a difference in her daughter Madison thanks to her lessons at Dream Kitchen. “She tells me when I’m doing something wrong,” Cray said. “‘That is not how chef taught us how to cut an onion,’” she joked in explaining the growth her daughter has shown.
Cray sees value in a program like this, even if the students don’t end up working in a kitchen. She believes they will “at least get some life skills so they can live on their own, or they can prepare meals on their own.”
She added: “It gives them a sense of community, a sense of value, involvement, pride, all the things they are lacking when they are sitting at home doing nothing.”
As is the norm with conversations about the special needs of neurodivergent people, social isolation always needs to be addressed. Societal pressures to conform to behavioural norms apply to people who don’t have neurodevelopmental disorders. Since people like the Dream Kitchen’s learners have difficulty with that, exclusion and depression are never far away.
“It goes to that humanization. He is a human being and a social being. When you look at him, you know he has a disability. I have found when raising him, people become unsure of how to interact with him,” Drexler said in explaining how people interact with her son.
“I support a graduate group of 21 and over. And they want jobs and they want the opportunity to work,” Drexler added. That was one of the reasons she jumped on the program.
While still a pilot project, the Dream Kitchen is being considered for expansion, with local restaurants and organizations being looked at as potential partners.
For more information on the Halton Down’s Syndrome Association, the Special Friends Network, Country Heritage Park and Food For Life visit:
- HaltonDownSyndrome.com, @SpecialFriendsNetwork on Instagram
- TheSpecialFriendsnetwork.ca, @theHDSA on Instagram
- CountryHeritagePark.com, @CountryHeritagePark on Instagram
- FoodForFife.ca, @FoodForLifeCan on Instagram