Yonkers bakery hires workers no questions asked

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NEWS) - Greyston Bakery in Yonkers boasts of the best brownie but what makes them special isn't how they taste or how they're made but who is making them.

At 27, Dion drew went to prison for dealing drugs. When he was released four years later he faced a harsh reality. He needed a job but no one wanted to hire him. Drew is now a supervisor in training at Greyston. He got his start here 7 years ago thanks to the company's open hiring program. That means no background checks, no interviews, no questions asked.

CEO Mike Brady says as long as the applicants can make it through an apprenticeship and do the work, they have a job.

The open hiring process was the vision of Buddhist monk Bernie Glassman, who founded the bakery in 1982. It became the state's first benefit corporation in 2012, a designation for for-profit companies tasked with delivering a public good.

After nearly 3 decades in Yonkers, Greyston now wants to share its "recipe for success" and replicate some of its best practices beyond the New York area.

As for the baked goods, they're sold online and in whole foods. The brownies are in some of ben and jerry's most popular flavors. They are delicious.

But the selling point is in Greyston's motto: they don't hire people to bake the brownies. They bake brownies to hire people.