Special Needs Work Program At Chatham Restaurant Makes 'Lifetime' Segment

CHATHAM, NJ — A special program is making its comeback since the pandemic on Oct. 18, a unique training opportunity for students with special needs, featured in a segment on "Lifetime."

Before COVID hit in 2020, Sorriso Kitchen regularly offered this training program, says Karen Bellas, for students at Chatham’s ECLC of New Jersey campus.

As part of the Sorriso Kitchen mission, with “Sorriso” the Italian word for “smile,” the eatery has sparked smiles among kids with special needs, as they have learned various aspects of working in a restaurant.

Karen Bellas owns Sorriso Kitchen with husband Jimmy. They have two sons, Nico, 17, a student at Chatham High School; and LJ, 20, a student at ECLC, who before the pandemic, worked at Sorriso after school.

According to their website, the restaurant was created with LJ in mind, a young man who “has Down syndrome and brings a smile to everyone he meets.”

“We wanted to create a safe place where LJ could work and be a vibrant part of the community he lives in,” the website reads. “That was the dream of Sorriso Kitchen.”

With October National Disability Awareness Month, Karen Bellas emphasized during a phone interview with Patch, the importance in offering employment opportunities to the special needs community, which even when a business devotes an hour and a half weekly to teaching a special needs individual skills, it makes a lifetime of difference for that person.

Through role playing during their training program on Mondays, ECLC students learn “all aspects of running a restaurant,” at Sorriso Kitchen, Bellas said. Among tasks are seating restaurant-goers, restocking the service station, entering orders into the computer and working with the restaurant’s Executive Chef, John Acosta.

When students graduate Sorriso’s program, receiving a certificate on a day they show off their skills to their family and friends cheering them on, Bellas said it gives the students that opportunity for future employment, with some having continued on at Sorriso and restaurants like it.

That leads to how the Lifetime segment came about.

Bellas said they have a customer who works for Lifetime and contacted them, who also has a special needs child and was moved to feature them and their job training program. Their program has additionally earned them accolades, including the 2019 Morris County Friend of Education Award.

Lifetime filmed the segment over the summer, Bellas said, with the episode having already aired, including most recently on Sept. 28.

Want to watch the Lifetime episode when it replays? Stay tuned to Sorriso’s Facebook Page for upcoming times and for more about their restaurant and program at www.facebook.com/sorrisokitchen.

Visit Sorriso Kitchen’s website at www.sorrisokitchen.com.

Questions or comments about this story? Have a news tip? Contact me at: jennifer.miller@patch.com.