BAKERY HELPS SPECIAL FOLKS LEARN TO WORK.

Byline: Don Holland Daily News Staff Writer

When she first went to work at the Magic Muffin, Kathy Duhme pretty much kept to herself in her bakery job. But inside, she wanted a more challenging job as waitress in the adjoining cafe.

First she started setting and clearing tables. Then she stepped up to taking orders and serving.

``I was always good with the public,'' Duhme said with a touch of pride. ``You don't see the public very often in the back. It gives you a lot of confidence because you get to know the customers. They all know me by name and stuff. I'm very happy here.''

Now she can handle the cafe's 20-seat conference room all by herself, tally up customers' checks, calculate sales tax and double check her work. Her next goal is to master the cash register.

Duhme is one of the success stories within the success story of a little cafe and bakery, tucked away in a quiet industrial park, whose lifeblood is its crew of two dozen developmentally disabled adults.

``From this really meek, timid person who just followed instructions, she's become confident enough to come out here,'' said Vicky Clarke, who manages the program at the Magic Muffin under the Association of Retarded Citizens-Ventura County. ``She takes initiative all over the place. She's totally invested, and she's totally confident in her job. It's that kind of evolution.''

Once marginalized into make-work assignments, the developmentally disabled are proving that they can be productive members of society when given a chance, Clarke said.

In addition to manning the modest cafe at 1661 Pacific Ave. in Oxnard, teams of developmentally disabled people in the restaurant's kitchen make cookies and box lunches for area schools. The program also packages and ships granola for a Colorado food distributor. And the Magic Muffin's catering business is going like gangbusters, said Clark, one of seven staffers who supervise, coach and train the clients.

Yet for all its entrepreneurial adventures, the Magic Muffin is first and foremost a training and rehabilitation program.

``It's great to be a business,'' Clarke said. ``But if we lose our people or our people aren't learning in the process, then that's not what we set out to do.''

In the past year, six clients have made the transition from the Magic Muffin to jobs at McDonald's, Vons and other area businesses, a testament to the program's success.

The program is funded by training contracts with the state Department of Rehabilitation, private donations and revenues from its for-profit operations. The Magic Muffin's parent organization, the nonprofit Association for Retarded Citizens, provides additional funding.

``Historically, this program was in the red constantly,'' Clarke said. ``But in the last year, we've just been able to bring it to the point where it breaks even some of the time.''

Being able to close out the month without a drop of red ink, Clark said, is something of an accomplishment for a rehabilitation program that was never intended to be financially self-sustaining.

With the help of a state grant in 1989, the Magic Muffin opened a breakfast and lunch counter on Third Street in Oxnard before moving to the Pacific Avenue location in 1994.

The operation's greatest successes have come in training and developing disabled clients, many of whom come to the Magic Muffin with plenty of energy and enthusiasm but few skills.

``Our people are willing to learn anything,'' Clarke said. ``They're willing to do any job that has to be done. But they often need to be reminded about stuff they've already learned and already mastered at some point.''

CAPTION(S):

Photo

PHOTO (Color) Dorothy Bobo, left, teaches developmentally disabled bakers Lisa Glidden and Celia Chavez to mix brownies at the Magic Muffin.

Don Holland/Daily News