Coffee business booming at high schools

Coffee business booming at high schools

http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20101220/NEWS01/12200313/Coffee-business-booming-at-high-schools


Jordan Haganman pulled the apron over his head, tied the string behind his back and, standing behind the counter of City High's Café cart, greeted his classmates.


"Good morning," he said. "May I help you?"

Haganman, a senior, is one of the special education student employees who help man the City High Café cart during the course of a week at the school. He helps dispense and sell coffee in what has become a trend that has spread to West High, which opened its own coffee stand, Pump It Up, on Nov. 29.

"Kids are drinking a lot of coffee, so I thought why not make it more convenient?" said Diane Fickel, a West High business teacher who oversees the West High coffee stand, which is just west of the school's library.

The "Coffee Cart," as it had been known at City High, started about 10 years ago. It was eventually moved to a classroom, but it faded away after school officials banned containers with liquids in classrooms, said Brent DeNeice, a City High special education teacher who oversees City High's operation.

He said he saw students head to coffee shops such as Java House and Starbucks off campus, and when the student commons area opened in 2007, he decided to try the on-campus coffee stand again.

Since then, serving the coffee and hot cocoa in special cups with the City High Café logo on them, the business grew, using the talents of students from industrial tech, visual arts and the food and consumer sciences classes.

However, special education students make up the bulk of the work force for the cart, doing everything from making coffee and cleaning the cart to making change after a sale.

"We can knock off social skills," DeNeice said. "We're working on math. We're working on service. We're working on janitorial."

At West High, it was a busy morning recently at Pump It Up, as students besieged the stand, tucked into a closet by the business classrooms, for coffee and hot chocolate.

Fickel also employs functional special education students, pairing them with business students in period shifts. The coffee stand opened after the business students did marketing research and wrote a business plan.

Students who work in the stand get independent study class credit as they learn the ins and outs of running a business.

"We did all of the things you do to open a real business," Fickel said. "It's as true to life you can get to running a business."

Each coffee business also makes use of its profits.

Pump It Up uses proceeds for scholarships for business students to attend leadership conferences in Des Moines and Washington, D.C. and for special needs students to attend Camp Courageous, Fickel said. City High Café has given money to varied groups including the Iowa City Animal Shelter, Best Buddies, Fas Trac and the Mayor's Youth Empowerment Program.

"We try to make it a learning project for them," DeNeice said.