Janel Pomeroy struggled to find jobs and bosses who understood her. Not everyone was willing to accommodate Pomeroy’s language processing disorder, she said.

Written lists help her tremendously in accomplishing her work responsibilities. Pomeroy is also a visual learner and fairs better when she is shown what to do instead of receiving spoken instructions alone.

“I have been searching for a job and a boss that would finally accept me for who I am, and for a place that is willing to be patient with me and my disability,” Pomeroy said.

Pomeroy finally found that in Brewability, the Englewood brewery and pizzeria that has a mission of inclusivity. Pomeroy has worked there as a kitchen prep manager since April, finding a caring work culture and coworkers who became like family, she said.

But on Tuesday, Pomeroy wasn’t at work. Instead, she was eagerly waiting for the brewery to reopen the following day — with a gleaming new kitchen. On Wednesday, the Brewability family will celebrate a $50,000 kitchen makeover it won after entering the Kitchen Storage Makeover Contest run by Foodservice Equipment & Supplies, a business magazine.

“I think it’s wonderful. We definitely need it,” Pomeroy said. “It definitely will help with the flow of the kitchen and just being able to be more organized.”

Brewability opened in 2016, dedicated to employing people with disabilities. Of the 26 people employed there today, nearly all have a disability and hold positions ranging from prep cook to management, owner Tiffany Fixter said. The waitlist to land a job with Brewability stands at 700.

Fixter, a former special education teacher, opened Brewability after moving from Kansas City and discovering a bleak job market for people with disabilities, she said.

“I think a lot of people have a stigma against people with disabilities working in the food service,” she said, calling that stigma disappointing when the restaurant industry is experiencing a labor crisis at the same time people with disabilities struggle to find work.

The brewery and pizzeria empowers people who are blind, deaf, and those who have autism or mobility limitations to work in a commercial kitchen.

Brewability also runs a nonprofit arm that provides field trips for local schools, in addition to operating a food truck.

As a busy restaurant owner, staying organized can be a challenge, Fixter said. The expense of replacing her kitchen and storage equipment — much of which was picked up at auctions — with new supplies was impossible to manage on her own, Fixter said.

“I’m just super grateful,” she said of winning the makeover. “I know they had a lot of applicants.”

The national business magazine Foodservice Equipment & Supplies has run the Kitchen Storage Makeover Contest for six years, providing kitchen and storage makeovers across the country. Past winners have included another pizzeria, a hotel and conference center and schools.

The sponsor is InterMetro Industries Corp., a Pennsylvania-based company that manufactures storage, transport and technology solutions for industries including foodservice. InterMetro covers $50,000 in products and supplies for the makeovers, and donates the travel and time spent completing the projects.

A panel of judges review the dozens of entries, and once a winner is selected, InterMetro’s teams fly in to assess the winner’s storage and kitchen space. They spend two days watching the workflow and operation in action, taking notes on how to improve their processes with new shelving, workstations and custom storage systems.

Then a crew of about 10 InterMetro employees personally deliver, install and label the newly organized kitchens, said A.J. Zambetti, director of creative and brand communications. What many organizations need is simply someone to come in and show them how to property store and organize a foodservice space, he said.

“We’re the experts in this stuff,” he said.

The installation of Brewability’s makeover began at 6 a.m. on Monday and would wrap up in time for a party on Wednesday celebrating the project.

InterMetro staff created brand new and dedicated storage areas for bags of grain that were once stacked in hallways. They designed drying racks and shelving systems that abide by health codes and generally worked to declutter Brewability.

“They were selected not only because of their need, but our ability to maximize accessibility,” Zambetti said.

InterMetro adjusted counter heights, paid attention to whether wheelchairs could fit into workstations and tried to keep as much equipment and supplies within reach as possible. Every storage area will be labeled, including in Braille.

“This is a huge transformation,” he said.