At Mears Middle School we’re here to serve you! Every morning we have a group of 10 student-workers show up at 7:10 am for the early morning shift at the Panther Pride Café & Coffee Cart. They start by setting up tables and getting out all the essential coffee cart supplies like cups, syrups, ice, and milk ready for the day. The School Business Partnership class has been at Mears Middle School for many years, but four years ago we formed a partnership with Kaladi Brothers Coffee and purchased an expensive coffee cart and equipment that follows. The business has been a thriving success because the students learn a tremendous amount through their hands-on environment. They learn skills such as accounting, customer service, order taking, and marketing.
At 7:45 am the second group of 10 student-workers arrive, and they start making coffee and espresso drinks for the teachers who have already put in their pre-orders. Also at 7:45, the regular students flood into the MPR and this is when our coffee cart becomes busy. The students can buy Italian sodas, white or dark hot chocolate, flavored steamers, and a variety of muffins and bagels. We are currently experimenting with fruit smoothies. At 8:20 am, we start our classroom orders, which is when we go around to four designated classrooms and take their drink orders. The student workers then go back to the coffee cart and make the drinks and deliver them to the classrooms, so kids can enjoy them while studying! Our Adult Only, Growth Stunting Formulas include standard espresso drinks like lattes, cappuccinos, Americanos, mochas and breves, and we also offer flavoring for all our drinks. |
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For the first two weeks of the School Business Partnership class, we go through training and preparation which includes: how to use the espresso machine and not get burned, what makes a good shot of espresso, how to make all the varieties of drinks, basic rules for a good business, and that the customer is always right. We serve about 50-75 students and 10-20 teachers daily. At the end of each semester we use all of our tip money and go do something fun like getting pizza and going to a movie. Our teacher, Mr. Hawes, watches us carefully and tells us to be safe when working with the espresso machine. He also keeps track of how much coffee and supplies we use and our expenses. Without him our coffee cart would not be as interesting or as fun as it is today!
Article written by these Mears students:
Terranova Tasker
Leland Armstrong
Haylie Garris
Nicole Broquet
Camille Hicks
Adriana Liggon
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