Food Service Director Bruce Reinke and Culinary Services Group (CSG) have received the 2020 Baltimore County Commission for Disabilities Employer of the Year award. Bruce oversees a large kitchen operation on the Catholic Charities campus in Timonium, MD. The food service program, operated by CSG, serves hundreds of people every day including clients of Gallagher Services. Gallagher Services supports individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities to live independently and find meaningful work.
Under Bruce’s direction, Culinary Services Group partnered with Gallagher Services to develop a vocational training program for their clients. The program consists of daily classroom instruction and about 4 hours of in-kitchen training daily, for anywhere from 6 to 9 months. The partnership assesses the needs of a worksite and examines specific work duties. Bruce goes the extra mile to make the program work by helping to resolve barriers and tailoring the training program to meet a client’s specific needs. Kitchen operations are sometimes adapted to help clients fully realize and leverage their new skills. Through the partnership, Bruce has helped ten people explore different duties in the kitchen, all while teaching valuable work skills.
In February of 2020, Culinary Services Group hired a Gallagher Services client who completed the program in a part-time role. Shawn Haney performs a variety of tasks in the kitchen including packaging meals for delivery, quality control, and stocking inventory. Shawn initially wasn’t sure that he wanted to work in food service. Bruce mentored Shawn on his own time helping him understand the pros and cons of kitchen work and allowing him to make his own decisions regarding transportation. Bruce made schedule adjustments based on MTA Mobility schedules and even drove Shawn home on occasion when there were transportation issues. Shawn has continued to grow his skills and is loved by his team members. He’s made new friendships and enjoys coming to work each day.
Bruce is a thoughtful and humble man by nature. He says he was surprised to be nominated for the award. “We learn very early on in food service not to look for recognition. You’re usually only as good as your last meal,” he joked. Bruce considers CSG to be a true partner to Catholic Charities and Gallagher Services, “We’re all members of the same team with the same goals. We try to live out CSG’s 25 guiding principles as we do business but we try to embrace the mission and vision of Catholic Charities as well, which is to uphold the values of love, service and teaching and I think we do that pretty well.
“We truly don’t view the clients here at Gallagher Services as individuals who are disabled. They are just people like the rest of us. We’re all different. We’re all unique. We all have challenges in our lives, some folk’s challenges are just more visible than others.”
- Bruce Reinke, Food Service Director, Culinary Services Group
Culinary Services Group considers themselves to be champions for training people with intellectual disabilities for competitive, integrated work. CSG recognizes the abilities of people and sets high expectations and gives support through regular mentoring and on-site coaching. The company understands and applies the principles of career exploration, job carving, and job customization at several vocational training programs throughout the Baltimore and Washington DC metro area. When nominating Bruce, Brian Trees, Associate Administrator, Gallagher Services said, “Over the years, it has become clear that CSG takes its mission seriously to support people with intellectual disabilities and other barriers to employment in finding meaningful, competitive work.”
“Over the years, it has become clear that CSG takes its mission seriously to support people with intellectual disabilities and other barriers to employment in finding meaningful, competitive work.”
- Brian Trees, Associate Administrator, Gallagher Services
