Toni Kraft is former owner of an award-winning San Diego restaurant who had a practice of training and hiring people with special needs. Today, she is taking that practice to the next level with an innovative Poway Unified School District program for special needs students.
“I’ve always felt comfortable around special needs children,” she explained. “I’m emotionally connected to them and understand how they want to fit in, be part of the community and excel.”
Her connection arises from her own disability and childhood experience.
Kraft was diagnosed in seventh grade with dyslexia. “Words and numbers would float around the page,” she said. “I was separated and put in remedial classes. I still have nightmares about being pulled from classes.
“I always had to work twice as hard because of my dyslexia.”
Born in 1959 and raised on the south side of Chicago along with four siblings, her parents divorced when she was 12. Kraft and her younger brother remained with their mother.
The family had 2 acres adjacent to their home where they grew much of their food. “I worked on the farm daily,” Kraft said. “We didn’t have money to buy all our food, so it was work the land or don’t eat well.”
Kraft’s childhood was centered around subsistence farming, cooking for the family and caring for her mother.
Her mother was disabled with a severe brain disorder and would get enraged at times.
“I used nutrition for healing. I would make dinner and calm my mother down. Food had a calming effect on her and me.”
After graduating high school in 1977, Kraft left home but continued assisting her mother.
By 1980, she was a single parent with two young children to support. She worked in hotel food services, janitorial and was hired by families through word-of-mouth to cook for special needs relatives.
“Those jobs saved us from being homeless,” she said.
She also pursued a culinary career, graduating culinary school and eventually receiving a college degree in hospitality.
In 1987, she began working for Compass Group, a national food service company, where she rose from entry level chef in Chicago to regional manager overseeing 80 accounts and 108 employees.
After marrying Richard Kraft in 1997, the couple moved to San Diego where she continued working for Compass.
It was during her time with Compass in Chicago that Kraft, motivated by her sensitivity to disabilities, first trained and hired special needs employees. She continued that in San Diego.
In 2006, she opened Café Merlot, a popular health-conscious restaurant at Bernardo Winery, where she normally employed six special needs individuals among her 27 employees. She maintained a garden adjacent to the restaurant and taught classes on site that included special needs students.
Café Merlot won awards, including San Diego Magazine’s best new restaurant, and recognitions for her education programs from the state Legislature, governor and board of supervisors.
Upon retiring from restaurant ownership, Kraft continued helping special needs students by sharing her culinary skills. She developed the PUSD program after conducting national research. “I didn’t’ find anything comparable locally for special needs students,” she said.
Today, PUSD employs her as a certified career technical educator teaching culinary, nutrition and subsistence farming to students, ages 17-22, with varying special needs ranging from autism to blindness.
The program is designed as a pathway to jobs.
Students, who are paid, learn in a kitchen and café at PUSD facilities, which Kraft envisions will eventually become a 90 percent student-run restaurant.
After developing the curriculum and receiving a grant, classes began twice weekly in April with teachers selecting students.
Kraft has seen significant changes in students’ skill levels and confidence.
“For example, a young female on the [autism] spectrum had difficulty getting into culinary school and felt beaten down. The program gave her confidence and valuable experience. She was finally accepted and is now excelling in culinary school.”
Kraft encourages employers to hire special needs individuals. “I was never disappointed. I found them loyal, hard-working and responsible.
“I’m a special needs person. And I’m a workhorse.”
About this series
Jan Goldsmith is an Emeritus member of the U-T’s Community Advisory Board and a U-T contributing columnist. He is an attorney and former law partner, judge, state legislator, San Diego city attorney and Poway mayor.
Someone San Diego Should Know is a column written by members of the U-T’s Community Advisory Board about local people who are interesting and noteworthy because of their experiences, achievements, creativity or credentials.
The U-T welcomes reader suggestions of people who have done something extraordinary or otherwise educational, inspiring or interesting and who have not received much previous media. Please send suggestions to Jan Goldsmith at [email protected]