Inside the Solanus Casey Center in Northeast Detroit, you will find On the Rise, a bakery filled with delicious goods at a great price. Offering breads, cookies, scones, and more- including an amazing cause to support.

On the Rise hires previously incarcerated people as well as people who have completed substance abuse programs and offers wonderful opportunities for them to have a fresh start to a better life. On the Rise Bakery is a program run by Capuchin Soup Kitchen, an organization “inspired by the gospel of Jesus and the example of Francis of Assisi,” with a mission to “attend simply and directly to the spiritual and other basic needs, especially those of the poor and disenfranchised, promoting justice for all.”

On the Rise offers a year-long program called ROPE (Reaching Our Potential Everyday), where workers learn a multitude of skills, receive housing, healthcare, food, education, and therapy- all while earning a wage. Chef Alison Costello, Executive Chef of Capuchin Soup Kitchen, stresses, “A lot of our team here had never held jobs before, you know, and this might be their first job.”

The bakery has just celebrated 18 years of business, founded by Brother Ray Stadmeyer. Stadmeyer had met a talented baker, Ed Collins, who had endured long term incarceration himself. Stadmeyer had always wanted to work with incarcerated people and former prisoners, and after hearing about how Collins started in the prison kitchen and left with a love and talent for baking, it led Stadmeyer to the idea of On the Rise. It started after hours in the evenings at the soup kitchen where they would bake, and then would reach out to local parishes to sell their baked goods and use that money to fund housing and resources for the workers. About three to four years later, they partnered with Detroit Catholic Pastoral and rented their first building.

Workers are required to attend small step meetings, encouraged to complete their GED if they haven’t already, provided housing and therapy, and welcomed to speak at the end of different local Catholic masses to promote On the Rise Bakery. They were later granted another building, which is where On the Rise is now located, off Mount Elliott Street.

Wendy Casey, director of Earthworks Urban Farm explained how Earthworks, which provides fresh ingredients for On the Rise bakery, is a program that used vacant land in Detroit that was restored into a certified organic farm. Earthworks was founded by Capuchin Soup Kitchen frier, Brother Rick, who developed the urban farm as an educational site for youth. Earthworks supplies a lot of the organic produce used not only in the bakery but also the soup kitchen, assuring that all meals and baked goods are made with the finest local ingredients. Earthworks just celebrated their 25th year of business last year.

Although the most popular bakery item is their fresh-baked bread, many other treats are well known and quite delicious, my personal favorites being the chocolate chip scone and chocolate chip cookie. More than being a quality bakery that works with wholesome and local ingredients, it is a remarkable program providing a second chance for hard working people looking to better their lives. With every yummy purchase you make, you are supporting people working towards the new beginning they deserve. “We are a therapeutic program,” Costello explains, “it’s for the men.”

Costello is a Detroit native and award-winning chef with a love for cooking since childhood. She is proud of her Polish heritage, growing up with parents with a love for food, rolling out pierogi dough with glass Pepsi bottles, and receiving her first pastry set from her chef uncle at the age of nine. For Chef Costello, cooking was always an integral part of her life. After receiving her Bachelors of Fine Arts from University of Michigan, it clicked with her what her next step should be:culinary school.

Being a female chef in a male dominated industry was not easy, emphasizing that she really had to prove herself. Costello observes, “This is still a male-dominated industry, but when I entered the field, women were making salads, maybe making pastry on the side, you have to toughen yourself up and then you go out and you’re one of the boys.” Women in such high roles in the restaurant industry like executive chef was not common, and although demanding respect constantly must be exhausting, it was very necessary. She added, “Even when I was an executive chef at other places, a new vendor would come in and even start talking to the dishwasher and I’m like, ‘Hello! It’s me!’”

Burned out from the restaurant business, she knew of the Capuchin Soup Kitchen from being a Detroit native and devout Catholic. The daytime hours were a wonderful change from late evenings in the restaurant business, especially so she could focus on being a young mom. She fell in love with the community and working with “nice people.” She notes how rewarding it is to see that when they give to the community, the community gives back with an abundance of gratitude, volunteers, and endless support. Community members coming into the soup kitchen for meals is always rewarding to watch, and seeing the regulars always brings a smile to her and the volunteers’ faces. She emphasizes the sense of unity in the community at Capuchin’s, which perfectly encapsulates their mission. Costello says, “You get to know them, and that’s really great. It’s not like the people in front of the counter and we’re the people behind the counter, it’s not that. That’s one thing I love about the Capuchins; we’re all brothers and sisters.”

To find more information about On the Rise Bakery, Earthworks Urban Farm, and other programs that Capuchin Soup Kitchen provides, visit their website at cskdetroit.org.