A Slow Breakfast, A Full Memory
Most makan places are closed for breakfast on Mondays, especially on a public holiday like today, in lieu of National Day.
Tay, JY and I popped by Professor Brawn Cafe to have our coffee and breakfast fix. It's rare we could have a slow breakfast especially on a Monday.
Prof Brawn brought back memories.
It was in 2009 when Tay retired from the corporate world and the year when the first batch of Pathlight School graduated. Many had gone on to further studies but a few did not and couldn't find a workplace who would take and coach them.
We (Tay did most of the heavy lifting in his retirement) bought a small cafe called Mingles and immediately started to renovate, rebrand it and ran it — and took in the first batch of special needs staff, mostly Pathlight graduates.
It was a successful and significant venture especially for an IT telco guy like Tay who loves his Teochew porridge mostly.
So many people came to support, not least the amazing staff from neighbouring organisations like Procter & Gamble, CPF, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, MHA etc.
Perhaps they were attracted by the gourmet sausages, the generous fish and chip portions and of course, the Cause — inclusion, disability, work etc were not that commonly spoken of yet in those years.
The path for a social enterprise was not easy (as most Food and Beverage operators will testify even now) — so we know not to romanticise this. But the cause kept so many going.
The cafe ran (I think successfully as long as Tay does not draw a salary haha) for 9 years, grew to a total of 30 staff and both my engineer husband and I felt to help even more people, it needs to be scaled.
We were taught that sometimes in life, something has to die before it can grow further.
We were already volunteering in ARC and Pathlight for many years already; and trust the staff there.
2018 — Professor Brawn was officially gifted to ARC (parent charity of Pathlight School) for $1 with a promise by ARC to take over the staff and the cause.
The rest is history.
The leadership of ARC and Pathlight led by Jacelyn and Linda supported by a sincere board — took Prof Brawn further than Tay and I can imagine.
Prof Brawn has 2 publicly accessible cafes at the Ang Mo Kio and Tampines campuses; started the student-affordable Prof Brawn Express at the Pathlight school plus EDEN SCHOOL 'canteens'; ran a popular in-school cafe outlet for more than 7 years in Raffles Institution and many years in Enabling Village etc etc — too much to share on this post.
More importantly, under the staff leadership of ARC and Pathlight, Prof Brawn created so many real job opportunities; and trained many students to work in an authentic worksite whilst they are still students. Thank you MOE for supporting this latter move.
What a privilege to be associated with such a life experience; even if it is no big deal to some.
The lesson of sometimes, something having to die before it can achieve greater heights — will remain with me.
Happy National Day.