05/26/2025
Message to the Community from A Dashing Pinch
Life is full of dreams and aspirations. We create new ideas and opportunities through our life experiences. We thrive off hopes and fulfilled past dreams. They create the landscape of our next moves. The journey we take along the landscape is ever changing and inspiring.
A Dashing Pinch is one of those lifetime journey milestones. It started as a ‘what if’ and became a ‘look at that’. We have altered perspectives and expectations of people and institutions on what is possible. The reality we created is where people with disabilities are not just employed, but valued. Where the business plan was the goal of employment is something that was a first for Jewish Ottawa. Catering and delicious food was a way to employ. We hope we have raised eyebrows and opened more employment opportunities for people with disabilities. We are all valued members of our community, we just have not all been seen. Visibility and representation matters. Attitudes matter. I hope we have succeeded in showing that.
I want to express my gratitude to the SJCC and Barry Sohn, the COO at the time, who gave me the chance to start this business during Covid. It was a dark time, and the launch of the business provided our staff with meaningful work. Over the past 5 years we have continued to have a strong relationship with the SJCC.
The past two years have been a medical nightmare for our family. Our son who inspired the business and was going to one day work there has spent the last two years regressing and requiring compounding complex medical lifesaving interventions. It has become evident that he will not be able to work in a kitchen when he cannot consume food by mouth safely and is not physically well enough to participate. It’s been a very challenging realization and process to understand that he will not ever be able to participate.
So while we had hopes and dreams of what the business could be, the impact it could have and reality it could create, we have come to understand that it is all of those things, just not for our son and family. We do have plans for our son to do meaningful work, on his own terms, when he is well enough and as he is able. We hope you will keep an eye out for what that is and support him when that time comes.
The work it takes to manage both a medically complex child and a business is not sustainable long term, and it is time to make the exceptionally difficult decision to take a step back and focus on our family and current reality. A Dashing Pinch will continue to operate until the end of July.
We are actively working with parties to try and have our mission of employing people with disabilities continue. We have proven both the need and the benefit for our community.
For now, we have nothing but gratitude to the Jewish community and SJCC for allowing us the space to make an impact.
Toda Rabba,
Ru
Message from the Soloway JCC
We are grateful to Ruchama and all the staff of A Dashing Pinch for their years of service to our members and the community. Building a business during Covid was a feat in itself, and meeting the needs of a diverse community was never easy. A Dashing Pinch established a self-sustaining enterprise that employed two staff full-time, and 10 people on a part-time basis. They served the community through the café and catering, providing meals for countless families and community gatherings, both inside and outside of the SJCC.
From sufganiot for Chanukah to delicious haman tashen for Purim, and many fantastic desserts and meals in between, the people behind A Dashing Pinch have made a difference to our community. We thank the A Dashing Pinch team that has served our community with care and dedication over the past five years. You built more than a business—you created a space grounded in the value of inclusion. Your presence enriched the daily life of the Centre, offering not just snacks and meals, but warmth and connection. Our community is stronger, more vibrant, and more welcoming because of the efforts of Ruchama and her staff team.
A Dashing Pinch will continue to operate in the SJCC until the end of July.
We wish Ruchama and her family all the best in the future, and we will continue to benefit from the presence of the A Dashing Pinch team until the end of July.
The SJCC will be announcing next steps for the café and the provision of food services in the coming days.
With gratitude to A Dashing Pinch,
Sarah Beutel
President of the Soloway JCC
