pages: CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-04-12.pdf, 9
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CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2017-04-12 | 9 | ITEM 2-B COMMISSION ON DISABILITY ISSUES MEETING MINUTES OF Wednesday, April 12, 2017 6:30 p.m. Panisse. I called him up, and I said, "Would you mind doing a cooking class for people with disabilities?" He said, "No, when do you want me to come?" I said, "Great, we'll do it this week.' He came and we let him promote his book. Michaela, I had one requirement. I asked him to do the cooking class and have an assistant who is one of our consumers, a young lady who was blind. He said, "Yes no problem, would love to do it." So he met with her before, and he got her acclimated around the table and he started to show her what he was going to do. He had her chopping stuff for him, and she did a great job. We had about 50 people. About 30 of them had disabilities and about 20 of them didn't. People loved it. They loved having a chance to meet with Cal. One of the cool things is that the young lady who was his assistant, at the end she was very nervous and she said, "You know, I had such a great time. I wish I could go to visit the kitchen at Chez Panisse." I said, "You need to ask him." But she was afraid. I said, "Come on, you got to ask him." I got her a book and I said, "Go ask him to sign his cook book for you, and then ask him if you can visit the kitchen." Stuart James: So she did. He's a very tall man, he's got a very deep voice, and he's a little intimidating. At first, he said, "Well, let me tell you that in my kitchen, I have people of all abilities, and that you are absolutely welcome to come visit my kitchen, but I have a rule. If you come to my kitchen, you have to come and work. That's the rule." She was flabbergasted, but he was serious. If she'd come to the kitchen, he was going to put her to work. But again, she became afraid, and she never took him up on the offer. So, we're starting to do that. I've now accumulated a list of some of the top chefs in the Bay Area. They've all been very willing to come in and teach cooking to people with disabilities. It's far more exciting than me doing it, right? And they're teaching them to eat healthy. They're teaching them to eat affordably. They're teaching them to eat things that look elegant, even though they're very simple to make. It makes everybody feel good, right? Our one challenge with this, we did this at the Ed Roberts campus, and we should have set up a kitchen. We've been hoping to find a better kitchen. So if anybody here knows a kitchen we can use, particularly a commercial kitchen, I'm really game for advice. Stuart James: This (picture) is, again, assistive technology. Michaela, we got a bunch of people trying out different wheelchairs on the screen. Once we get ahold of a product, we invite people to come in and try it. So this happened to be the Firefly. It's an assistive device that you attach to a wheelchair and it turns into a bike. They came in, and we let everybody take it around and try it. One of the programs, I don't know if anybody does this at Alameda. This is a Berkeley-only program, at the moment, and we're trying to get in to Oakland, and I don't know if it exists at Alameda. I think it does. This is a residential access program and it's paid for the City of Berkeley. This particular, last 20 years, it's been paid by CBDG monies. Community Development Block Grant. CDBG. But next year, I think, Berkeley's going to fund it out of the city budget. Stuart James: What it is, is low to moderate income folks, who need to have their house customized, so they can get in and out. So they may have a child who just acquired a disability, or they may be a senior, who has now acquired a disability. Or they may be a person with a disability whose mobility has declined. Now they need help getting in and out of their home, whether it's a lift, or a ramp, or whether we need to put grab bars in, near the toilets, or widen doors, the City of Berkeley pays for it. And we do about 44 consumers a year in Berkeley, and we put in lifts, and ramps. And actually, the state just gave us $50,000 to do it within our catchment area as an additional sum of money. We'll do all sorts of stuff. We do accommodations for people with vision impairment. The old deputy at CIL is blind, and he's now in his 70s, I believe. So we're going to go in and do some accommodations for 05/24/17 Page 9 of 29 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2017-04-12.pdf |