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 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 coffee cart student business with some freebies to download below!
About The Guest Blogger:
Chase Coffee Roasters; Anthony Palmeri & Autumn Stevens
Founder/ owner Anthony Palmeri has over 10 years of experience teaching in a mod/sev high school setting. Anthony also has a background in culinary, specialty cooking, and roasting.
Brand Rep Autumn Stevens has 6 years of experience in the mod/sev high school setting with specialties including vocational opportunities and program development. Autumn is also the Program Director at Chase Foundation, a vocationally driven day program for adults with disabilities.
Together, Anthony and Autumn created Chase Coffee Carts to provide vocational opportunities in a classroom setting.
As special educators we believe in the potential of everyone to learn and succeed. At Chase Coffee Roasters, we apply this philosophy, ensuring our team is understood and supported, creating a welcoming and inclusive environment for all.
About the Business:
The Chase Coffee Cart program is a unique vocationally driven program designed for special education classrooms. Our program provides vocational opportunities for students to practice in the classroom setting to transfer over to a job site one day. The coffee cart can be run as a business to make money for special education programs by selling coffee to students/ staff. Our goal is to prepare students with disabilities for the workforce while they are still in school. We hope to hire our future employees after they have mastered the skills in the classroom.
Benefits of our program
- Students will be able to practice voc/life skills in the classroom and on campus
- Promotes inclusion opportunities on campus by building relationships with students and staff
- Can be run as a micro business that makes money for the classroom or special education program.
Student Tasks:
Here are some of the vocational and life skills opportunities or IEP goal ideas you can work on through a coffee cart business:
- taking orders
- making coffee
- money math
- following a recipe
- food safety
- personal hygiene
- fine/gross motor skills
- communication
- following a work schedule
- exploring different job positions (barista, cashier, stocking, etc.)
You might like these activities:
Staff & Student Time Commitment:
Typically our school sites open their coffee cart 2 days a week in the morning and sell to teachers and staff members on campus.
Supplies:
Here is a list of suggested supplies to start a coffee cart. Chase Coffee Roasters can provide everything you need to start your classroom coffee business… You sell the coffee and keep the profits!
- 1 Coffee Cart
- 1 Coffee Cart stamp
- 1 Coffee Carafe
- 1 Coffee Maker
- 1 Electric Grinder
- 1 Box of filters
- 1 Cash drawer box
- 6 Coffee Aprons
- 1 5lb Bag of Whole Bean Coffee
- 100 Coffee cups, lids & stirrers
- Condiment display organizer
- Instructional Operations for staff/students
- Visual support material for students
- Ongoing support from Chase Coffee staff
School sites may purchase a coffee cart from Chase Coffee Roasters through their administration or work with their district’s workability department. Email chasecoffeecarts@gmail.com to set up a zoom call for 1 on 1 consulting session and coffee cart inquires.
FREEBIES For Your Coffee Cart:
Chase Coffee Roasters is providing free PDF resources to supplement your coffee cart – you can make a copy to your Google Drive simply by clicking the three dots on each PDF and selecting “make a copy”. Included in the Freebies: Visual Employee Schedule & Job Descriptions, Coffee Cart Timecard, Next Dollar Up Coffee Supplies Worksheets, and a Vanilla Cold Foam Latte Visual Recipe Task Analysis.
CLICK HERE to access these FREE downloads!
Check out this FREEBIE from Adulting Made Easy you can also use for your coffee cart:
Additional Advice/Info:
Our team is happy to help start your coffee cart business or take your existing cart to the next level. Follow @phscoffeecart, @chasecoffeeroasters, @chasecoffeecarts, @the.chase.foundation for inspiration
If you’re in the area, be sure to visit us at our shop in Fullerton, CA!
