HENRIETTA, N.Y. -- The pies that are baked fresh at Special Touch Bakery at Holy Childhood in Henrietta are made with care by Anthony Genazzio and about a dozen other adults with special needs. He and his crew measure, mix and bake 16,000 pies a year out of the school's 700 square-foot kitchen.
Holy Childhood wants to make more pies and employ more people, so the operation is moving to a new 22,000 square foot facility on Mount Read Boulevard in Rochester.
State mandates forced Holy Childhood to rethink its pie business and turn it into an integrated workplace to employ people with and without disabilities.
"For a long time people have been saying, 'why don't you expand the bakery'? Well, of course, it is not that easy," said Joe Perdicho, Holy Childhood director of strategic business development, "but this is an opportunity that was born of regulatory change, but really we see it as an opportunity to expand one of our core businesses and serve more people at the same time."
Community partners Wegmans and Palmer Food Services are advising Holy Childhood on production planning, equipment purchases and kitchen layout so they can make up to a million pies a year, and also how to sell them.
"It is possible that at some point we will be in 27 states and so that's the dream. We are going to make Special Touch bakery a household name," said Perdicho.
Anthony and his Special Touch Bakery co-workers can't wait to bake the first pie in the new space, hopefully by this summer.