Sandwich cafe helps people with learning disabilities

SANDWICH — As a customer, Christine Golding says muffins at Cafe Riverview "are the best on the planet" and she’s become a big fan of the orange-lavender variety since the place opened five weeks ago.

"I applaud the Riverview School. ... I love what they’re doing here," Golding, a former special education teacher, said.

"Here" is an airy, sunlit cafe with high ceilings, warm-colored wood and, on a recent Monday morning, the delicious smell of bacon announcing breakfast sandwiches in the making. It’s a meet-for-coffee kind of place for neighbors and people traveling along Route 6A.

It’s also a real-world classroom for 16 of its employees: They are students or recent graduates of the nearby Riverview School, which helps people with complex learning disabilities learn to live and work independently. The cafe is next to Second View, the thrift shop that the school has operated for the past two years.

"We have four to six students here every day and three job coaches," cafe manager Taryn Hallett of East Sandwich said.

Hallett, who worked as a residential supervisor at Riverview School for six years before the cafe opened, said many of the students studied culinary arts at Cape Cod Community College and some already have their ServSafe Certification for restaurant workers.

Organizers hope working in a cafe open to the public will give students the self-confidence needed to work anyplace.

"The biggest thing is (making) eye contact and vocalizing," Hallett said. "Getting them to have self-confidence and project themselves in a positive, self-confident light is what we’re working on."

School officials see Cafe Riverview as a training ground with plenty of support. The setting allows students to encounter real-world situations, such as the pressure of dealing with a line of customers during a busy lunch or the stress of having to explain that the cafe is out of a particular item, said Margaret A. Albert, Riverview’s director of marketing and communications.

"The whole point of this is that they have a chance to encounter and learn to deal with the situations they’ll face when they move on and get jobs at other restaurants," Albert said. "And we see this as a way to give back to the community which has been so supportive of the school."

The goal is to serve seasonal foods purchased from local vendors (they use Green Briar jam and are working on more partnerships) on a menu that is interesting, affordable and easy enough for students to make, Hallett said. A consultant from Delaware North, a hospitality management company that works with food concessions at arenas nationwide, volunteered to help set up a supply list and craft a menu.

In addition to organic coffee, teas, hot chocolate and specialty espresso drinks, there are pastries, breakfast panini, sandwiches, specialty panini and salads, as well as a daily soup. Most offerings are named after the people who inspired them, which makes for a good story when the counter is not too busy.

Matt Horner, 21, one of the students who has been training since September to work at Cafe Riverview, is in charge of keeping the restaurant stocked. Horner’s parents work with the State Department, so he has had summer jobs in American embassies around the world, including Mongolia, where he’ll be again this summer.

"I can’t do office work," he said, pretending to type. "My disability prevents that. But I helped set up cameras with the DSS (Diplomatic Security System) and worked on Hillary Clinton’s visit to India."

Horner said one of the most valuable things about work experience is that Riverview taught him how to conduct himself during a job interview. And now that he has a job at the cafe, he’s been pushing for occasional ethnic food days so he can show off the recipes he learned last summer with his mother and sister at the Blue Elephant cooking school in Thailand.

His colleague Katie James, 24, works wiping down tables and wrapping silverware in napkins. Living at Riverview’s post-graduate transition house, she takes the bus to the cafe to work.

Speaking quietly and occasionally glancing away, she nonetheless gets her point across. Asked what else is important to know about Cafe Riverview, James said, "The cafe is open Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m."

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press.

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