Nicholas Carter loves being in the kitchen. From baking fudge brownies at work to cooking up hotdogs at home, Carter says he likes to cook "pretty much everything." For the past five years, he has followed his culinary passion as an employee in the kitchen of the General Store and Bakery at ARC New London County's Groton location.

ARC is a non-profit organization that helps people with intellectual and developmental disabilities gain education and vocational training with the goal of enabling them to participate and contribute to the community. With locations in Groton and Norwich, ARC provides support to more than 550 people each year and advocates for their full inclusion in the community.

Kitchen employees work five days a week, making breakfast sandwiches and boxed lunches to stuffed breads and a variety of gluten-free treats. After they're made, the foods are available for purchase through online orders on www.thearcnlc.org, at the ARC's general store located in the lower level of their Groton location or, more recently, from a traveling cafe cart that visits the Groton Senior Center and the Waterford Community Center.

In addition to kitchen work, the cafe cart is another example of vocational training and reflects ARC's efforts to involve students and employees in their communities and promote entrepreneurial behavior, according to ARC CEO Kathleen Stauffer.

"It's a 'teach a person to fish' philosophy," said Stauffer. "The idea is to set the person up for optimal success."

The goal of the programs is to train and help employees find real job placement and full employment within the community according to Stauffer. She said the method of training is the alternative to the now-outdated idea that a person with disabilities should be institutionalized rather than educated.

"If you put any person into an educational setting, they will learn," she said.

Carter, now 25, has received support from ARC for the last eight years, but he doesn't let his disability get in the way of doing what he loves.

"I'm in a wheelchair so it's hard to get around," said Carter. Despite the difficulty, Carter has mastered many of the bakery's staples, including their famous chocolate chip cookies, which he said are his favorite. He bought 24 packages last year to bring to Thanksgiving and give as Christmas presents.

Carter is a leader in the kitchen, providing help and direction to his peers, which is something he has learned from his family and supervisors at ARC.

"My mom knows how to cook well so I learned from her," said Carter. "Tom is also an excellent example."

Tom is Chef Tom Murphy who leads ARC's culinary program. Murphy said that, while some kitchen prep work is done by himself and kitchen aids, the point of the program is for the employees like Carter to do the work.

"Everything we do is based on them making it. That's what it's all about," he said.

That is why on Wednesday mornings, visitors to the Waterford Community Center will find a snack cafe cart operated by the same ARC employees each week. The cafe cart sells coffee and baked goods and has become something community center employees look forward to each week.

Ellen Fougere, assistant director of senior services at the community center, stopped by the cart on a Wednesday last month for a cup of coffee. She said that in the year that the cafe cart has been servicing the Waterford Community Center, the ARC employees have been "bright spots" and have become a part of the building community, even helping to decorate the lobby Christmas tree last year.

"We look forward to (them coming). The lobby has turned into a place for people to meet and find someone to talk to. The kids are very friendly," said Fougere.

Murphy said that experience at the cafe cart helps prepare employees for job placement in the community - in places like the casinos, grocery store and fast food restaurants where many former ARC employees are currently placed. But it also helping their social skills.

"They're learning customer services skills and cash register skills," said Murphy. "Everyone knows them and they know everyone."

J.HOPPER@THEDAY.COM

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