A kitchen for all: This cafe embraces inclusivity

A love for cooking hearty Italian cuisine spurred Ms Geraldine Tan to pursue a second career after spending more than 25 years in the corporate world. After years of whipping up Italian dishes, she realised that the culinary process is methodical, which was well suited to her idea to start an initiative that enables differently-abled persons gain meaningful employment.

The 52-year-old says: "Cooking Italian dishes is very structured and calls for following a precise list of instructions. It is ideal to teach the cuisine to differently-abled persons, who tend to do well in a structured environment."

Over the past six years, the self-taught chef has been running My NoNNa's, a social enterprise that provides employment for differently-abled persons and the elderly. Besides cooking, the staff also have cafe stewardship duties. Some of the eatery's popular Italian-inspired dishes include macaroni and cheese, roast chicken and quesadillas.

The social enterprise also serves local specialities such as blue butterfly pea nasi lemak and laksa pasta at a canteen stall in Nanyang Girls High School and a bistro in Catholic Junior College.

My NoNNa's is recognised as an Honouree in the Brands For Good awards 2021/2022, under the Business for Good category.

Besides running its dining and bento/snacks business, My NoNNa's conducts a Match-and-Train Programme. The company reaches out to youth and differently-abled persons through its contacts and social media, and assesses the strengths of trainees, who may have conditions such as autism and intellectual disability. It also provides customised training related to jobs that they have been matched to in restaurants, cafes, shops and urban farms.

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Ms Tan shares: "When we provide structured training to staff with autism, they can deliver a consistently good Mac & Cheese because they are meticulous about following the step-by-step instructions."

Training the supervisors

Ms Tan believes that focusing on training differently-abled persons is only "half the battle won" when it comes to ensuring their long-term employability. Training their immediate supervisors is also essential, she says, adding: "Over the years, we have taken in so many differently-abled persons who dropped out of mainstream F&B establishments because their supervisory staff could not manage them, or they were even abused."

To that end, My NoNNa's works closely with employers to refine job scopes and foster a more inclusive work environment. It also trains supervisors to better manage and communicate with differently-abled employees so that they can become an asset to organisations they are deployed to.

"Better supervisory training leads to higher staff morale and productivity in the long term," says Ms Tan. "Look beyond their disabilities, look at their abilities!"

Besides F&B, My NoNNa's is expanding its Match-and-Train Programme to include more industries such as retail and urban farming to widen the pool of prospective employers and create a greater social impact.

"I am tired of throwing little pebbles into the lake," she says. "I want to throw huge rocks to create a tsunami of hiring differently-abled persons." She believes they can unleash their potential in these sectors, which are facing a manpower crunch.

My NoNNa's is walking the talk by combining its F&B, retail and urban farming training initiatives at its third outlet, Sun Club Community Café by My NoNNa's, which will open in February. Located at Upper Thomson Community Hub, it is open to the public.

Jointly run by charity organisation SUN-DAC, the community café will offer a farm-to-table menu featuring vegetables grown by trainees from its urban farming training arm. The outlet will also run markets and sell homemade food products.

Ms Tan hopes that even the use of the word "social enterprise" will be diminished in the future. She says: "All enterprises should have a social mission that sits alongside financial KPIs (key performance indicators), and providing meaningful employment is the employer's responsibility - whether the staff are differently-abled persons or not."