Our Team! – Special Eats Tucson

MEET OUR TEAM

The hearts behind the eats.

Tamara Varga

Owner

William Harman

Owner + Chef

Jeffrey Varga

Owner

we proudly present our

Special Eats Special Team Members

Daniel
Social Media

Daniel is part of our Social Media crew. He updates our calendars and makes sure everything is up to date.

John
Food Truck

John is our top-notch food prepper on the food truck, preparing bread for grilling and cutting sandwiches.

Kari
Support

Kari, help us with our to-go bags for the truck.

Vincent
Cashier

He has autism, but that doesn’t stop him from being your amazing cashier. Vincent is in our training program for 16-year-olds, and this is his first job. He says he loves having a job. Come out and get to know Vincent as he works the register at our many, delightful events.

Ben
The Artist

Ben is one of our artists, a true gem. Ben designs, draws and creates unique and beautiful artwork. We are proud that Ben has chosen Special Eats as a creative outlet his passion. Look for Ben’s artwork on our “to-go” bags at our awesome cheese events. Get yours while you can.

Sarah
Sales

Sarah sells our merchandise. Come and get some food and merchandise from Sarah and one of our events.

Dave, aka DJ
Support

Dave (aka “DJ”) is another wonderful addition to our special team. With a heart almost too large to be contained, Dave is especially caring when anyone in the Special Eats family is struggling through difficult times or rough patches. Courageous and true, Dave has never shied away from lending a helping hand, a kind word, or even a kick in the seat of the pants when required. He has a great love for animals, especially his dog “Puppy” and would love to, one day, be a part of the United States Navy.

Jenny
Support

Jenny is one of the sweetest folks we’ve known. Jenny enjoys art, crafts, and puzzles. She is caring and kind with a huge streak of independence. Jenny is a wonderful addition to our special eats team.

Jesse
Support

Jesse excels at giving high-fives while helping make our merchandise.

Carol
Custodial

Carol is a wonderful addition to our special team. She makes to-go bags for our trucks, and she also makes bracelets and does custodial work here.

Christian
Custodial & Landscaping

Christian loves to do landscaping at our office. He prides himself on the detail he puts into landscaping at our beautiful office.

Priya
Support

She is part of our janitorial crew at our office and commissary. She loves to sing while cleaning and loves to give hugs.

Jamie
Support

Jamie likes to help make bracelets and keychains for our merchandise line. He also likes to help with our car wash crew.

Steven
Support

Steven helps us with making to go bags.

Sharon
Support

Sharon is part of our jewelry-making crew for our merchandise. She also likes to help with cashiering while selling our merchandise. She says she loves her job, and it doesn’t feel like a job. It feels like a family.

Kim
Support

An incredibly multi-talented and vibrant individual, Kim brings a whole new level of exceptional service to Special Eats. She is passionate about improving the quality and level of service to folks who need it. Kim is also an avid writer of stories, creator of pictures, a college educated actor of tales. She’s into outdoor recreation and ceramics and is curious about everything else. Special Eats is all about folks like Kim.

Scott
Support

“HEY BUDDY!” Scott is our resident inspiration. He inspires us, he motivates us, he encourages us, usually with just a wonderful smile and a jolly, “Hey, Buddy” Scott is usually the first person picked for any team, even if he knows nothing about the game he’s being picked for. He supports our Special Eats food truck through arts and crafts and will always be one of our favorite picks.

Lindsay
Support

Lindsay is part of our baking crew. She loves to bake and dance at the same time. She also likes to make our beautiful to-go bags for both of our trucks.

Kyle
Food Truck

Kyle likes to play video games, and he also loves cooking, and playing with Legos. He likes working with Special Eats making new friends.

Robert B.
Support

Robert enjoys painting and doing food bags for our food truck.

Kirk
Garden & Car Wash

If you need your car wash, he is the one to go to! He enjoys doing Arts & Crafts. He also enjoys working with our gardening crew.

Unique
Social Media

Just like her name, she is very Unique. She enjoys traveling and playing games. She helps with our Social Media with making videos for our Grilled cheese and Dessert truck.

Richard

Richard loves going on vacation in his cabins. He also loves to hangout with his cats.

Jaymi
Support

Jaymi helps make our merchandise. She loves to help make our t-shirts and jewelry. She also helps with our shopping for the food truck and merchandise.

Robert
Support

Robert helps in our merchandising department. He puts together baskets and jewelry.

Alex
Food Truck

Alex helps run the orders and assists in the setup and takedown of the food truck.

Jesus
Support

Jesus is part of the Car Wash, Custodial, Social Media & Gardening crew. He does it all!

Holden
Support

Holden is one of the most humble people we know. Quiet and a bit shy, Holden is most energetic in his humility. He has a nearly magical ability of finding what needs to be done, getting it done, and moving on to the next task. Highly creative, he is always busy, always willing to lend a hand to anyone, anytime. He enjoys arts and theatre and especially loves being amongst the diverse and varied Special Team members at work here at Special Eats. We are truly blest to have him as part of our Special Eats team.

Brenda
Food Truck & Social Media

Brenda is our resident horse lover. She has a horse she calls Monti who is more of a friend to her than anything else. It would be difficult to describe the wonderful gifts with which Brenda has been blessed. We at Special Eats have yet to determine if there is any limit to those gifts. Brenda works with the food truck, and has proven to be quite a computer wiz while working with Special Eats websites and social media.

Cheryl
Support

Cheryl is the loving mother type to us all. She is a part of our merchandising and art team. Perpetually happy, and a bit feisty, she does it just like mama used to. Special Eats is proud to work with her.

Karen
Support

Karen is another multi-talented hand here at Special Eats. You name it, she’ll get it done and there is nothing that she won’t do with the maximum amount of enthusiasm and love. Karen especially enjoys training other folks in procedures, turning out true pros and helping us all recognize our true potential. She is a valuable asset to Special Eats.

Cassandra
Custodial & Social Media

Cassandra is a wonderful mother of 2 who has worked hard all of her life, continues to do so, and has never been afraid to do so. Cassandra is an all-around hand who can do it all. She enjoys working on the food truck and has always specialized in the creation of beautiful, one-of-a-kind jewelry. Special Eats is looking forward to the ideas and creations she’ll bring to our merchandising department.

Christina
Support

You would be hard-pressed to find a more wonderful smile than that of this wonderful, young woman. She has an approach to and zeal for life that is huge, HUGE. Christina works with us in our merchandising and artistic endeavors, bringing in huge amounts of imagination, and talent. She enjoys our almost daily yoga workouts and especially the beadwork we do here. It is so fun to have her with us a Special Eats.

Sharon
Support

Sharon is that special and rare soul with a quick wit and a quicker smile. Sharon is a shopper, that is, a hard-core shopper. There’s none of that “stopping off for a few minutes” kind of stuff in her life. It comes in handy here at Special Eats as we are in constant need of many different kinds of supplies, crafts, and other support.

Greg
Food Truck Cook

Greg is the quiet man, the shy guy. Greg is an extremely intelligent, aspiring, young culinary artist. Special Eats is blessed to have Greg sharing that artistic talent with us. In no time at all, he has become one of our best grilled cheese artists, immediately working his way up to the position of cook while earning the respect and love of his fellow peers. Greg’s dream is to work hard, eventually becoming the master chef we all know he can be. We at Special Eats are only too proud to assist the fine, young man with his dream.

Sonia
Support

What can you say about Sonia that isn’t just simply awesome? Sonia keeps going and going until it gets done, and you can bet it will always get done. Along the way she adds her own bit of special talent, turning out wonderful work for our merchandising and artistic work here at Special Eats.

Alex
Food Truck

Alex joined Special Eats in support of the Special Eats food truck. Alex is our resident guru, possessing an endless supply of information on a variety of different subjects and is always willing to share what he knows. Alex enjoys a challenging work environment and we at Special Eats work hard to ensure that Alex feels he has found a home here.

Arturo
Support

Arturo is loud, he is proud, he is proud to be loud. Special Eats immediately fell in love with him. Art is the kind of guy you throw in to the middle of a problem and sit back waiting for a solution. You can bet there will be a solution: quite imaginative , totally unexpected, absolutely workable, Art is a great addition to our team , bringing a huge amount of experience and knowledge to Special Eats.

Valerie
Support

Valerie is the women with the perfect smile. When that smile flies no one is immune to it’s incredible charm. She is also a very talented artist and it shows in everything she does. This combination of charm and talent can brighten up even the most cynical of lives and is especially useful here at Special Eats.

Christopher
Store Inventory

He does our inventory for our store at Special Eats. For fun he enjoys listening to heavy metal and play bowling.

Michelle
Food Truck, Social Media

Michelle is part of our Social Media Team and also the Custodial Team. She also helps with our food truck to prep for gigs. In her free time, she enjoys dancing, singing, and playing Football.

Skye
Support

She enjoys coloring bags for the truck and she also enjoys working at the Sweet shop.

Jesus G.
Custodial

You will always see him wearing U of A merchandise. He also helps with our custodial team. His favorite team is U of A.

Gary
Custodial

Gary is part of our custodial team. He likes to listen to any music. He also enjoys fishing.

Emily
Support

Emily loves to dance when no one is watching! She also enjoys singing and watching SpongeBob SquarePants!

Trevonn
Food truck

Trevonn works with the food truck, where he prepares food, including grilling bread and cutting sandwiches.

Josiah
Food & Dessert Truck

Josiah works in our Food & Dessert truck. He makes the food and the desserts, and not only that, but he also makes videos of it. He does it all.

Miguel
Custodial & Car wash

Miguel says, " This is the best job he has ever had." Not only does he work with our Custodial crew, but he is also a pro at detailing for our car wash!

Corinah
Custodial

Corinah loves to make to-go bags and also likes to make sure everything is clean. She is a team player, and you can always count on her to get a task done.

Charles
Support

Charles likes to do custodial work and also work on our to-go bags. You will always hear him singing "You've Got a Friend in Me."

Cory
Food truck

You will see Cory in the food truck making sure everything is bagged correctly in our to-go bags. He likes to sing and brings joy to our team.

Chris
Support

Chris does our custodial work at our candy store. In his free time, he likes to do yoga

Our Job Coaches & Support Staff

Job Coaches provide the tools and a safe environment necessary for individuals with special needs to explore their world, identify their potential, and use that potential as a stepping stone to greater possibilities. Job Coaches work in a fast-paced environment requiring incredible confidence and ability while, at the same time, great humility, resisting any urge to “supervise” or jump in and do it all. Altogether, our management team and job coaches bring over 120 years of combined experience in special needs training to Special Eats and to Special Eats Sweets.

Elaine

Payroll Specialist

Elaine is more than our assistant director and the best bookkeeper this side of Heaven. Elaine keeps everything running smoothly in matters of regulatory compliance, payroll, bookkeeping and Human Resources. Give Elaine 2 columns of numbers or a tough compliance issue and she’s ready to rock-and-roll. She is the glue that quietly holds it all together. Elaine has a nephew with autism and she is indispensable to Special Eats.

Aliana

Assistant GSE Director

Aliana is our an administrative specialist. If you’ve ever wondered that a person very quiet and shy could possess a contagious joy, happiness, or zest for life that radiates to all who know her, wonder no more. Aliana is the one. The Special Eats Special Team loved her immediately. Aliana, with a huge wealth of knowledge behind her, is tremendously qualified in her role at Special Eats, ensuring regulatory compliance and adherence to legal protocol. Special Eats is blessed to have her aboard.

Jasmine

GSE Supervisor

Jasmine has worked for 28 years in Special Needs Development. Her experience has been such a blessing to have in our Team. She is our Supervisor for GSE/ DTA and DD advocate. In her free time she enjoys hiking and getting ahold of nature.

Anaveve

Admin

Anaveve is our Administration/ ESA Support. Special Eats is lucky to have her in our team because she brings so much joy to our work. In her free time she likes to read. If you need a good book to read she has a tons of recommendations for your next read.

Haley

Payroll Specialist Assistant

Haley is good with numbers. If you need a math person, she is the one to go to! In her free time, she likes to travel the world and try new foods.

Sonia

Candy Store Supervisor

She is the creative director for Special Eats. Together with her son, who has Down syndrome, Sonia draws upon an infinite pool of imagination and talent, creating all types of one-of- kind, fabulous merchandise, unique gift baskets, and custom jewelry. If you have an idea, Sonia can bring it to life. She is truly talented, and we are fortunate she has chosen Special Eats to showcase those incredible talents.

Peter

Maintenance/ Sweet Truck Job Coach

Peter is a job coach for our lunch time food truck crew. He is also the perfect facilities maintenance guru. You can bet that the job will always be straight, true, properly plumbed and expertly executed. Peter with his eternal smile brings out the best in all of us, along with a bit of mischievousness.

Learn More

Laurie

Job Coach

Laurie, who works with our custodial team as a facilities manager, has been in the disability field for 15 years. Extremely creative, detail orientated, and eternally happy, Laurie and has never met a room that she could not clean, fix, decorate, brighten up, or otherwise embellish with white glove precision. She brings out the best in all of us and our wonderful facilities. We are proud to have her aboard.

Cal

Marketing/Job Coach

“Larger than Life”, this is the only way to describe our good friend Cal. He is an awesome gent whose soul truly surpasses “Big” and surly transcends “HUGE” to be described only as “Larger than Life”. With his infinite pool of wisdom, his bottomless enthusiasm, his total willingness to share, Cal has a tremendous ability to make all of us here at Special Eats feel the we, too, can be larger than life.

Naomi

Social Media/ Job Coach

Naomi has worked with special needs for 4 years and also worked in the medical field has a phlebotomist for 7 years so if you see her run!! She is now part of our Social Media team and one of our coaches and we are excited to have her here.

Melita

Job Coach

Having over 10 years of experience helping folks with special needs, Melita is a multi-talented, one-woman support system. She knows and loves each and every one of us as one of her own and we at Special Eats are proud to call her one of OUR own.

Natalie

Job Coach

Natalie is the person who, when life hands her lemons, will serve up the lemonade, a thick, juicy steak with all the trimmings, and the most exquisite Pinot Noir. An upbeat and positive young woman, Natalie strives to help folks find the best version of themselves. We at Special Eats have found that she’s very good at that. With her infinite pool of patience and love, Natalie brings a special talent to Special Eats and we are thrilled to have her with us.

Zidane

Job Coach

Zidane, goes by “Z”, is an awesome young man that comes from a fine family rich in tradition. Z credits his father for giving him the tools he needs to be the highly successful, truly motivated powerhouse he has become.

Mireya

Job Coach

The best way to describe Mireya is a ” Team Player ” she is someone you can count on to get the job done. Mireya in her free time likes to play soccer and hang out with friends. She also LOVES to read! If you need a book to read, she is the one to go to.

Abraham

Job Coach

An avid soccer fan, Abraham brings a unique brand of leadership to Special Eats, developed internationally through years of experience on the pitch as player, team captain, and coach. An easy-going, open-minded friend to all, Abraham has also worked as a project manager for the Community Home Repair Project of Arizona (CHRPA), a wonderful non-profit agency dedicated to assisting low-income homeowners. His perspective and ingenuity are invaluable to Special Eats.

Isabella

Job Coach

Isabella goes by “Izzy” she has been working with us for almost a year and she is one of our coaches. In her free time she enjoys skateboarding. So “watch out” if you see her! We are thrilled to have her in our team.

Robin

Job Coach

We are thrilled to have Robin in our team! He always does everything with a smile. He can build almost anything! He is one of our go to when something breaks, in his free time he likes to go camping and likes to cook and bake.

Jessica

Job Coach

Jessica enjoys hanging out with her kids, traveling, and listening to music. She is also one of our job coaches and our plant goddess due to her sunny personality.

Jordan

Job Coach

Jordan is one of our newest job coaches but also this is his first job. In his free time he likes to play games like Roblox, Minecraft.

Rita

Job Coach

Rita is one of our Job Coaches at the Candy Shop. She likes to help everywhere she can. She always have a positive attitude and is a team player. In her free time she enjoys hangout with her friends.

Jacob

Job Coach

Jacob is one of our job coaches at the sweet shop and helps with our merchandise and art program. In his free time he enjoys shopping.