Bookmark Café at Rogers Memorial Library Serves Up Coffee, Community & Opportunities for Adults with Disabilities

Abby Woods, a plucky 22-year-old woman with an easy smile, works the cash register and does other jobs at the recently-opened Bookmark Café at the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton Village.

Woods, of Southampton, used to be accompanied during her work hours by a coach. But she no longer needs such assistance and can work on her own.

“I like the library,” she told Dan’s Papers on a recent morning at the Café.

“It was a perfect fit,” she said.

And a perfect fit for the library, too, said library director Elizabeth Burns.

Woods is one of six people working at the Bookmark Café under a joint partnership by the library and the non-profit South Fork Bakery in Amagansett. Under the Bakery’s Launch jobs skills program, adults with disabilities work at the Café, with pay, performing a variety of duties, including staffing the cash register, helping diners, and sprucing and cleaning up.

The novel program began this past June as part of a $2.2 million renovation of the library, said Burns.

“The Café is a vision of the kind of things we should be doing,” Burns said in an interview in her office.

The Bookmark Café occupies a bright and cheerful 22 X 24 foot space close by the library’s front desk and near a shaded outdoor patio. The Café offers South Fork Bakery’s signature products along with sweet snacks and hot and iced craft coffee from Hampton Coffee, and cold beverages. Food is not prepared at the Café and all items are packaged.

The Café is opened Monday-Friday 10 am to 5 pm; Saturday, 10-4 and Sunday 1-4.

Hampton Coffee said in a statement that it is “proud to be making a difference in our community.”

Bridget Fleming, South Fork’s executive director and a former Suffolk County legislator, said the Launch Program “provides meaningful, paid work” and is “a perfect opportunity” for adults with disabilities to learn work skills and interact with patrons.

The idea to have South Fork adults work at the Café came about recently, when a local company dropped out of plans to serve as the Café’s vendor. Burns said in an interview that the library issued a request-for-proposals, and South Fork responded.

“We did a community survey,” Burns said. “What people wanted was a community café.” Library patrons, Burns said, wanted a place to sit and chat over coffee and a snack without having to walk into the Village. “People don’t want to come back and forth,” she said.

The South Fork Bakery, established in 2016 by Shirley Ruch, a speech and language pathologist and a certified special education teacher, hired adults with disabilities. Ruch had worked with autistic children and had a private practice in Sag Harbor.

She realized, according to a biography, that many of her students, after graduating from high school, had difficulty finding jobs.

Ruch opened the bakery with six employees and a professional baker working out of the kitchen at the Hayground School in Bridgehampton. Now, the bakery has about 20 employees. Its products can be found at farm stands on the East End. It now operates out of Scoville Hall in Amagansett and became a non-profit in 2018. Ruch is now retired and living upstate New York.

Fleming said that, indeed, disabled adults after high school have difficulty finding work.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 22.7 percent of those adults with disabilities are employed. For those without disabilities, the number is 65.5 percent.

“Workers with a disability were nearly twice as likely to work part-time as for those with no disability across all educational attainment groups,” the BLS said in a statement.

Fleming said the bakery’s plan is to eventually expand its Launch Program. The bakery has a contract with the library, which is renewable.

“We are using this opportunity to train folks to be independent,” Fleming said.

Michael Polignani, 32, of Southampton, has been working at the Café just about since it opened for business. He had worked at the bakery for two years before. Like Woods, he no longer needs a coach either.

He smiles when asked if he likes the work.

“I’m happy when people come in and they get their coffee and sit down and relax,” Polignani said.