A program based out of the Waunakee Village Center’s basement kitchen is providing job training to people with cognitive disabilities, according to Isthmus.
Especially Stroopwafels trains individuals with cognitive disabilities who have left high school in work skills such as food preparation, packaging and operating a cash register. Crew members make and package stroopwafels, a popular Dutch treat, and sell them at local stores and the Waunakee farmers’ market.
The model is based on one in the Netherlands in which individuals with Down syndrome bake and serve desserts to customers. Program chair Edgar Steenwinkel is from Haarlem, a city in the Netherlands around 30 minutes from Amsterdam.
Steenwinkel created the program in 2025. His son, Nick, has Down syndrome and went through a post-graduation apprenticeship program offered by Waunakee High School, but Steenwinkel said after age 21, he saw a gap in similar support for individuals like Nick.
Especially Stroopwafels receives fiscal sponsorship from local arts and culture nonprofit Create Waunakee, but the program is also working on gaining its own nonprofit status as a separate entity, which will be called Culinary Training Academy Inc.
