Parent Social 1/2 Hour at Coffee Cup

Have a chance to chat with Eva Borho, PTO President, at Coffee Cup!

Please read more about Coffee Cup below! Come see us and consider a donation for this wonderful program.

What do we teach at Coffee Cup and “why?”
Easy answers are “Entrepreneurship,” “Hospitality,” “Business.”
Yet in reality, our aims are far more subtle and significant.
We teach that life is a series of acquired skills – and that mastery is achievable, exciting, and fun.

Much of school, by necessity, is a head down and pencil up to learn facts. In Coffee Cup, our heads are up, and we teach students to look adults in the eye, requesting and receiving information, processing it accurately and efficiently, and completing tasks in a team with others. Of course, we discuss concepts like “types of businesses,” “expenses” and “net profit.” But then we translate those concepts into actions.

After each Thursday morning cafe closes, students are able to count how many cups of coffee, tea and hot chocolate we’ve “sold” (remember, all of our beverages are given to school staff for free), how much we’ve received from sales to the public, and how much we brought in through donations.
Yet even those numbers are important only in context.
Before any sale is made, students have learned how to take an order and fulfill it. And this is no small feat.

Think about it: We ask 4th graders to walk through their school, find adult staff members, ask them if they would like a beverage, and take an accurate order from them (which includes writing the adult’s name, room number, and how much sugar, cream, etc. they’d like on an order form). Then, this student must return to the cafe area and wait patiently while the order is filled by other classmates, who use the information that’s been collected to make the beverage correctly. Once the order is completed, the student must retrace their path back to that same adult, and deliver the order with a smile and a thank you.
This happens 60 – 90 times within an hour on Thursday mornings!

Older 5th and 6th grade students, who have gradually gained confidence and skills, fill tea and hot chocolate orders with many specific requests – one adult would like green tea with honey, another has chosen English Breakfast tea with sugar, while another wants hot chocolate, sometimes requiring whipped cream.
There’s so much to keep track of.

Coffees can be regular or dark. It can come with or without milk. Students field a myriad of requests, which boosts their critical thinking capabilities.
And, of course, they love the thrill of using the cash register and fulfilling multi-faceted requests.

It’s a lot of work! And yet we keep offering this experience year after year.

Why?

There is an enormous joy witnessing how acquiring skills makes a person stand straighter, look teammates and customers directly in the eye, speak up more and more, and walk with a determined and confident step.

It’s not a competition, there are no grades.
There is only personal growth, as each student can achieve it. There is a chance to try new things, in a “real world” context. We really do have a successful business!

Please support the work of Coffee Cup with a donation to the PRM Foundation. All students are offered this experience at no cost. Please note “Coffee Cup” with your donation. https://prmrocks.networkforgood.com/