The Arc of Hilo plans to open a new sandwich kitchen and also expand its conference center services.
The nonprofit already employs many area residents who live with developmental challenges.
The organization’s mission is to improve quality of life through “educational, recreational, vocational and skills training as well as employment and residential opportunities.”
It offers vocational training to prepare those workers for jobs, said CEO Debbie Perkins.
“They succeed. And that’s the whole thing,” she said. “You want them to succeed.”
Arc-trained workers already provide laundry services, janitorial work and groundskeeping for county, state, federal and private contracts. Plans now call for offering vocational training in food preparation, meeting setup, food service and cleanup.
“Currently, in Hawaii, food prep is one of the areas of projected growth,” said Marta Birchard, outreach and fund development coordinator.
“The restaurant industry is, by far, the country’s largest employer of disabled people. Unfortunately, we do not have a kitchen facility that would enable us to prepare meals for our clients, or to create a teaching/learning space for transferable skills in the food prep and restaurant arenas.”
The Arc, located across from Yukio Okutsu State Veterans Home in Hilo, 1099 Waianuenue Ave., has a small former commercial kitchen inside its facility that is no longer up to date.
“What we’re looking to do is to turn it into a ‘cold kitchen,’” Perkins said. A cold kitchen operates without an oil fryer, flame, overhead hoods or exposed griddle.
Instead, workers in cold kitchens focus on preparation of wraps, sandwiches, soups, fruit salads and smoothies.
“They can learn how to not only prepare the food, but also serve the food so they can go out in the community and get jobs,” Perkins said.
The Arc has been quietly seeking donations of equipment and money to fund remodeling of the kitchen, to include a new three-compartment sink for vegetable preparation, a bigger refrigerator, a hefty dishwasher, a new oven, a freezer, cabinets, a garbage disposal, counters, a stainless-steel prep table, floor tiles and a hand sink.
Total renovation expenses are likely to range from $85,000 to $100,000. About $1,500 has already been received and architectural drawings by Hilo’s Fleming and Associates have begun.
Because the kitchen has not yet been renovated, individual workers and those participating in vocational training and recreational programs get daily meals from an area diner or grocery-store deli.
“The contents of the meals are high in calories, fat, sodium and cholesterol and offer little in the way of vitamins, fiber and other nutrients important to health,” Birchard said. “This contradicts our focus on teaching health and wellness practices to our people.”
When the cold kitchen opens, she estimates it will serve more than 50 participants in Arc programs.
The kitchen will also be used to prepare food for the Arc’s client-run snack shop, conference center meetings and, eventually, parties booked either at the conference center or at remote locations.
Most importantly, it would increase the ability to offer employment to people with disabilities in the community, Birchard said.
“I’m thinking, with my fingers crossed and my heart open, that we can open by June or July,” she said.
But Perkins noted that partial kitchen use can begin as soon as the new sinks are installed. Health inspectors have already coached the Arc on what it will need to accomplish in order to pass inspection.
Perkins said vocational training for clients is gradual and they first work on-site at the Arc to get used to interacting with people, machinery noise, work routines, etc.
“They get a little nervous sometimes, going out into the community,” she said.
But the training is also real-world experience. For example, Sunday services at the conference room are handled by employees who were trained there. If a messy area needs to be cleaned or someone is unhappy, “you’re going to have to deal with it, because that’s what the real world is like.”
A vocational instructor accompanies each team of four or five workers.
Perkins expects the cold kitchen to initially employ four people. The conference center, she hopes, will begin offering party rentals in 6 months to a year, with workers available either onsite or working remotely in the community at pavilions and gyms.
Birchard said more than 125 people will eventually benefit from the initiative.
For those wishing to help, funds can be donated in person or by mail.
To make an equipment donation or seek job applications from workers trained at the Arc, call Perkins at 935-8534.
