The Husky Café sells coffee and cookies to staff every Thursday during our advisory. The Morgan students who work there sell coffee and hot chocolate for $1.75 and hot teas which costs $1.50. The Hagness special, which consists of ½ hot chocolate and ½ coffee, is also $1.75. When a half day is on Thursday, advisory does not meet, so the Café has a delivery system that delivers the order to the people who order the drinks.
The Café has existed for 2 years. Students learn a variety of skills. They start by making a business plan. Then they brainstorm what supplies they need and how they would operate. They plan how much they will charge people. Then in class, they practice giving back change and calculating the total. This program teaches the students’ money skills, customer service skills, communication skills, and data tracking.
One of the successes from this program is they have a former student that is now working at Beach Donut. Special education teacher Melissa Harris also thanks Julie’s cup of Joe for providing them with the coffee.
A challenge they faced at the start was getting the money to buy the materials, such as the coffee carafes. Another challenge was making sure they had time in the schedule. With the new schedule, it’s harder because there is only one period to sell coffee during advisory on Thursdays.
All the money the Husky Cafe makes goes back into buying the supplies, but last year they were able to go on a field trip to Mystic Aquarium based on the profits.