Jewish bakery in Milwaukee teaches job skills to adults with special needs

Meg Jones
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The aroma was intoxicating — braids of dough formed into challah bread and shortbread cookies with cutouts in the shapes of stars and dreidels baking in several ovens.

Jonathan Frank and Mark Wilets bent over their tasks, rolling dough and threading it into the familiar rolls and bread consumed during Jewish ceremonial occasions.

It's the middle of Hanukkah and thousands of cookies and challah rolls and loaves will flow from the hands of Frank and Wilets, and others working at Friendship Bakery, and out the door for deliveries to customers.

The new Jewish bakery on Milwaukee's upper east side is creating a lot more than just sweets and goodies — it's creating a job opportunity for those with special needs.

Friendship Bakery opened up shop in July after Rabbi Levi Stein and his wife, Leah, thought of the idea to help adults with special needs get the confidence to find full-time jobs.

As part of Friendship Circle of Wisconsin, an organization that gives those with special needs support through a variety of educational and social experiences, Friendship Bakery is geared to adults with special needs.

"So what happens when they grow up? What do they do next?" Stein said. "When you're older it's not as important to have friends come visit you at home; it's more important to be productive in society, to make a difference, to have a job to get out and be with other people. That's where the idea of Friendship Bakery came from."

Friendship Bakery program participants Jonathan Frank (far left) and Mark Wilets work on drizzling a white chocolate lemon topping on Hanukkah cookies. The Jewish bakery on Milwaukee’s east side employs people with special needs.

When Stein reached out to several people to find a great pastry chef,  everyone told him the same name — Dina Menzl-Russo.

"I do a lot of independent work, so I was looking for something to do a bit more regular," Menzl-Russo said. "I thought it was a really great idea. I have all these people I can give tasks to and train and see all their skills flourish."

Twice a week, Menzl-Russo, along with a few volunteers, help adults with special needs in four different sessions learn everything there is about baking, and then some.

Each step is demonstrated by Menzl-Russo, and then repeated until the bakery workers understand the task. There are also laminated cards with directions and pictures. 

The adults with special needs learn about measuring ingredients for pastries such as cupcakes, cakes, tarts, eclairs and challah. They also learn how to roll out dough, decorate pastries, clean up, and even how to correctly wash their hands.

Seven bakers, seven volunteers and two staff members work at Friendship Bakery.

The goal for "some is with getting work, for some it's getting out of the house and doing something," said Stein. "Sometimes people are not looking for jobs, not because they can't but because they're afraid or they don't have the skills."

Evaluated on a 65-point checklist, bakery employees have the opportunity to graduate from the program with a certificate and references to take to the Grand Avenue Club, an organization that helps those with mental illness. 

Stein said participants are evaluated based on the skills they already have to determine which skills they need to focus on.

"It's a great learning ability to spread my horizons and learn a bunch of other things," said Frank. "It gives us a chance to learn how to coordinate our time and how to expand our knowledge of doing other things than just doing one thing. We get an idea of how other things are done."

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On this day Frank and Wilets, aided by volunteers Menzl-Russo and Connie Lopez, were creating hundreds of challah rolls and loaves as well as 2,000 cookies decorated with blue sugar sprinkles or transformed into sandwiches with raspberry or apricot filling. Two conventional ovens and two convection ovens heated up the small kitchen in the large home that houses synagogue Chabad of the East Side.

Normally Friendship Bakery is open two days a week but during Hanukkah the facility was open four days. There's no store, but bread, pastries and cakes are delivered within a 10-mile radius of the bakery as well as on Thursdays to two pickup locations — Jewish Beginnings preschool in Fox Point and Crown Judaica gift shop in Mequon. Much of the business is through online orders — fcwi.org.

Those unable to participate in Friendship Bakery's kitchen help with deliveries. Carrying bags of bread and sweets to a car, ringing door bells, greeting clients with a smile are all part of the checklist — and also gives those on the outside a look inside the program.

"This makes an incredible connection to Friendship Bakery and the outside community," Stein said. "They're not just hearing about it, they're getting it at their front door. They're not just getting awesome pastries and bread, they're meeting the person involved in the program. It's really made a huge difference."

Friendship Bakery hopes to eventually expand the kitchen to its own building. Right now, the organization is looking for support and a sponsor to make that happen.

But until then, the bakery will stay put and continue helping adults with special needs reach their full potential.

"We all have some type of special needs and there really is nothing that these guys can't do," Menzl-Russo said.