The fragrant commercial kitchen looked like any other preparing orders for Hanukkah.

Pastry chefs assembled trays of cookies decorated with images of menorahs and dreidels, and checked on the pillowy sufganiyot, doughnuts traditionally eaten on the holiday.

The only sign of the Sunflower Bakery’s uniqueness was the American Sign Language interpreter posted a few feet from the assembly line to assist one of the workers.

All of the chefs-in-training at the Rockville bakery, which was founded in 2008 to provide job training for adults with learning differences and developmental disabilities, need a bit of assistance.

And they’re not just learning how to work in a kitchen, but a kosher kitchen. Sunflower Bakery, which started in the Beth Sholom Congregation in Potomac, follow the rules of kosher cooking, and its busiest season is Hanukkah, which begins the evening of Dec. 14.

At the end of their program, the students get certified in food preparation — a credential that can help them find jobs.

A bakery, said Jody Tick, Sunflower’s executive director, is a good place for these trainees to acquire skills they need to live as independently as they can.

“Pastry really caters to people with learning differences in terms of structure and consistency,” she said.

Jobs in the real world

Sunflower has grown to offer a hospitality and front-of-house training program as well as a recent addition of traditional culinary arts coursework, which began in 2024. The training sessions are led by a staff of eight full-time and part-time chefs, who bring their own hospitality career experiences at area restaurants and Marriott.

Around 50 to 60 students enroll annually in Sunflower’s program, which operates on a quarterly basis. They craft treats and dishes that are sold in their Rockville warehouse and North Bethesda cafe or distributed to regional venues such as Jewish community centers, synagogues and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The goal is to get the students ready for the working world. A few will get hired at Sunflower but most will venture into commercial kitchens close to their homes. Some recent graduates have been hired at Tatte Bakery & Cafe and Wegmans.

Tick said more programs like Sunflower’s are needed across the region because the organization’s research indicates there are around 70,000-80,000 adults in the D.C. area who have cognitive disabilities.

“We’re a drop in the bucket — an important one — and we’ll maintain the integrity of our model," Tick said, “but there needs to be more skills-based programming and options.”

Tick knows from experience because her 17-year-old son, Adler, has Down syndrome. She joined Sunflower in August 2021 after serving as the chief operating officer of the Capital Area Food Bank — “I’m a Jewish mom, so food comes naturally,” she said with a chuckle.

She’s long thought about what opportunities Adler will have once he graduates from high school. The options for adults with developmental disabilities aren’t plentiful or obvious, and many programs for them are underfunded, she said.

“What’s their career going to look like?” she asked.

Patience and encouragement

One student figuring out that path at Sunflower is Michaela Teweles, a Silver Spring resident enrolled in the culinary arts program. In the Rockville kitchen one recent day, she prepped ingredients for meatballs and latkes.

Teweles, 19, has always liked working in her family’s home kitchen to whip up different cultural cuisines, including a recent batch of chicken tikka masala she was particularly proud of. She took culinary classes at Paint Branch High School, and her mother found out about Sunflower’s program through Maryland’s Division of Rehabilitation Services — which also refers other students to Sunflower.

Teweles thinks she might like to work in a restaurant kitchen once she completes the program.

“I like the hands-on aspect of cooking. I always struggled in school with like academic sort of things,” Teweles said.

Late on a Friday afternoon, Teweles and the pastry students hurried to finish their work because Sunflower needed to wrap the day’s operations before sundown in observance of Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath.

But they would have plenty of work and learning ahead of them before more orders would stream in before the start of Hanukkah.

“It’s definitely been really encouraging [here] because I’m just someone that can get overwhelmed by big things and they’ve been really patient and encouraging,” Teweles said.

“I’m someone that can need a lot of clarification and ask a lot of questions and they don’t get upset with me.”