A mom’s wish for her son leads to opportunities for young adults with autism

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Typically, when Paul Guglielmo takes a first phone call with a prospective client interested in having Craft Cannery, his Bergen-based food production company, take their idea from the kitchen to the store shelf, it’s a quick chat with rapid-fire questions and answers.

When Jerri Lynn Sparks, a North Carolina native who lives in Churchville, called for the first time earlier this year it was different.

“Jerri and I were on the phone for over thirty minutes as her passion for her son, Jared, and classic Carolina-style vinegar-based BBQ sauce became obvious,” Guglielmo said. “I learned two things: she’s been perfecting the sauce for years, and her son Jared is her entire world.”

Jared, 26, is the oldest of Sparks’ four adult children. The two are incredibly close. Sparks was pregnant with Jared when she was an undergraduate at UCLA and it was there, at the university’s medical center, where he was diagnosed with suspected autism at age 3.

Six months later, after the family moved to Rochester, Jared was diagnosed with autism at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Jerri raised Jared and his siblings with equal encouragement of their passions, but there were roadblocks beyond her control when it came to Jared.

“When my daughter got a job at 15 Jared wanted a job too, but nobody would hire him,” Sparks said. “Jared has the same goals as everyone else, but our society is not set up for people with different abilities.”

Last holiday season Sparks had three weeks off from work (she is a former congressional press secretary who now works in the biotech field) and dedicated that time to figuring out how to help Jared achieve his dream of working.

Simultaneously, she was making her Carolina-style BBQ sauce in her kitchen for a New Year’s party and had an epiphany: Could her sauce recipe also be the recipe for Jared’s dream to have a job?

The sauce is Sparks’ own recipe but draws inspiration from her childhood living in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and her father, who is a butcher. It’s an authentic, all-natural Lexington-style BBQ sauce with a marinade consistency and a slightly tangy, sweet apple cider vinegar base. There are pieces of garlic in the sauce and no thickeners.

Jared, whose favorite food is chicken wings, has enjoyed them with his mom’s sauce for years. Sparks describes her son as a “foodie” whose openness to trying a wide variety of foods was partly culled from bringing him to Wegmans on Sundays to sample products at their tasting stations.

Following the New Year’s party, Jerri reached out to Guglielmo, president/CEO of the Craft Cannery, about producing the BBQ sauce. The first product run was in April 2023 and Blue Ridge BBQ Sauce had its soft official launch in June at ANG Markets in Churchville where they sold out in under an hour. The sauce is also on shelves at the IGA in Boonville, North Carolina and Combs Butcher Shoppe in Elkin, North Carolina.

“Jared’s dream is to see it in Wegmans and at the Canandaigua Performing Arts Center — two of his favorite places,” said Sparks, who notes Jared excels in helping deliver the product and persuading people at tastings and festivals to try it. “He is quite persuasive and loves to talk to people. Jared is the Mayor of Everywhere.”

Blue Ridge BBQ Sauce is also available in the New York State Tasting Room at the New York Kitchen in Canandaigua, where it has had a positive, domino effect on the nonprofit organization.

After Sparks and Jared took a class there together, she reached out to Marianne Rosica-Brand, director of food and beverage education at New York Kitchen, with the idea of creating classes for people with autism.

“At New York Kitchen we do what we can to welcome everyone and make our kitchens accessible,” said Rosica-Brand, who was incredibly open to Sparks’ suggestion and told her if she could find ten families to participate the organization would consider it.

With her large network of families of children with autism, Sparks quickly achieved that goal. This January, Sous Chef Academy will premiere at New York Kitchen. The participants (ages twenty-one and up) will learn life skills, food preparation, food safety and more, alongside an adult partner in the facility’s smaller kitchen, which has safety accommodations in place.

The monthly program (which is now full) will be held until November when there will be a graduation ceremony complete with chef coats and sous chef certificates. It is being held at a low cost to participants ($30) thanks to supplementation from the nonprofit’s community fund.

“Hopefully this is just our first [cohort]” said Rosica-Brand, who looks forward to hopefully incorporating Blue Ridge BBQ Sauce as an ingredient in one of the classes. “Jerri took the bull by the horns to make this happen.”

Sparks says Jared, who lives in a group home and comes home weekly for family outings, and her are closer than ever. They are working hard to grow their sauce business and share the story behind it.

In particular, Sparks hopes their story reaches parents of adult children with special needs who oftentimes find their child’s world has become smaller and limited after high school graduation.

“This world is as much theirs and as much Jared’s as everyone else’s,” Sparks said. “This is a passion project for the love of my son. It is me listening to Jared, telling him he does matter and showing him that he is part of this community.”

You can find Blue Ridge BBQ Sauce on Facebook by searching for “Blue Ridge BBQ Sauce.”

Caurie Putnam is a Rochester-area freelance writer.