Having a student business has SO MANY benefits. Depending on what your product or service is, you have the opportunity to practice independence, money math, cooking, responsibility, and so much more! In this series, various guest bloggers (teachers & special educators) will share their tried and true experience of starting and running a student business for special education students. Hopefully these posts will give you some great ideas or inspire you to start a classroom business of your own to teach students valuable vocational & life skills! Up next is a classroom that sells fresh baked cookies!
About the Guest Blogger:
Welcome to the Cookie Business! I’m Jamie Hubbard and I teach a middle school class for students ages 12-16 with moderate Intellectual Disabilities. I have a partner teacher who serves another group of students. We focus on integrating daily living skills into a curriculum of functional academics, with a special emphasis on job readiness skills.
How The Business Started:
Together, we run a school-based enterprise called the Hornet Hot Cup & Bakery, or HHCB. We have been serving up chocolate chip cookies during school lunches on Fridays for the past 6 years! The business began way before my time–it started with a teacher who needed money for field trips. At that time, Otis Spunkmeyer offered small, countertop ovens with a contract to order, bake, and sell their cookies. From that humble start, we now have a full size kitchen with the capacity to bake around 400 cookies each week!
School Leader Buy-In:
Our school is very student-centered! I knew from my first interview with the school administrators that they valued students with special needs. They told me about the Cookie Business! As the business has grown, I have learned that this support is invaluable. We always talk to our principal about any changes we want to make and make sure he understands why and how this will benefit our students. Because of the positive experiences with the cookie sales, we’ve been able to expand our HHCB over time to include other ventures. The support of school leaders is critical to any success.
Supplies:
At the beginning of each school year, we work with our school office clerk to set up a purchase order for the cookie business. This PO allows us to order cookies and bags through the district food service distribution center. We have a standing order for 3 boxes of cookies delivered every other Wednesday. Each box holds 240 1-ounce frozen cookies. The cookies are from Otis Spunkmeyer and meet all school nutrition guidelines. They’re whole grain! Otis Spunkmeyer Bags come in boxes of 1000. We order them twice a year.
Workspace and Time Committment:
For our program, we have a skills lab classroom. This is separate from our traditional classroom spaces and includes a kitchen with stove/oven, dishwasher, microwave, refrigerator, toaster, coffee maker, blender, and other small appliances. We have a washer/dryer, clothes rack, and other laundry supplies. We have a full bathroom, complete with cleaning supplies. We have a storage closet, desks, tables, a proBoard, and work tasks and stations. This is where the cookie magic happens! We have an open purchase order with our local Sam’s Club. We have used our funds over the years to purchase cookies sheets, aprons, and cooling racks. We also stock gloves, oven mitts, parchment paper, spatulas, a rolling cart, and bins for organizing our cookies. Typically, we need 5 hours of baking time and we sell during lunches on Friday for roughly 2.5 hours. We bake on Thursdays in rotating groups during our life skills class time and on Friday mornings leading up to lunch times.
Skills & Student Tasks:
Most of my students are working on life skills that will prepare them for jobs to support independent living. We reflect a variety of IEP goals in the skills we teach and track. By participating in our business, students learn:
- Handwashing
- Putting on gloves
- Putting on/tying aprons
- Counting 1-20
- Patterning
- Setting timers
- Kitchen Safety
- Bagging cookies/final product
- Greeting customers
- Filling orders
- Making Change
- Cleaning skills
- Following directions
- Working with others
Cost-Profit Breakdown:
Our cookies cost $41.81/box (including tax). That’s about $0.17 per cookie. We haven’t purchased bags in over a year, but the cost is around $25 per 1000, or $0.03 per bag. We sell our cookies 2/$1.00. Each bag costs us approximately $0.37, which means we make $0.63 per bag.
Marketing & Sales:
Our cookies have a reputation of their own! We’ve consistently provided excellent service and a great tasting product! The smell wafting through the halls on Fridays is our best marketing tool. Our principal also builds up excitement during afternoon announcements by reminding students to bring their dollars on Friday and get in line early, before we sell out! We sell during all grade level lunches in the concessions stand just outside the cafeteria.
The Magic of “Cookie Day”:
Cookie Day is a part of our school culture and it is magical for everyone who has the opportunity to participate. On this day, we work together. Everyone has a part and a place. We create something to share with our peers and experience school in a way we don’t always get to do. The interactions that happen in the concession stand window create yearlong connections for students, helping to erase bias, develop awareness, and encourage acceptance.
Tips & Tricks:
Running a school based enterprise is no easy task, even when it’s successful. Our core team of adults includes two teachers and two paraprofessionals. During a typical cookie day, the paras run the show! They get the kids involved and keep things running. We’ve learned to set up zones or workstations: Prepping, Baking & Cooling, Bagging, Selling. All students learn all jobs, but it’s important to recognize who does what well to help support future career goals and outcomes. We’ve also learned to have LOTS of visuals and opportunities for practice. We practice each skill using cookies, and other recipes, during weekly cooking lessons. The most important tip, though, is EAT THE COOKIES! Everyone gets to taste the warm chocolatey goodness that is the magic of Cookie Day!
Thanks for reading!
Jamie Hubbard
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