Jake Collins
News/Graphics Editor
Webster’s own coffee shop, which is run by Special School District (SSD), is approaching its one year anniversary in late January.
“The coffee shop teaches kids real world skills and is a way to get them involved in the community here at the high school,” SSD teacher Emily McEntire said. Some students who work at the coffee shop have “most of their classes with me,” McEntire said.
The Statesmen coffee shop is “beyond our wildest dreams for the students,” McEntire said. The shop was originally opened through a grant, and the profits were put towards public transportation passes for the students.
The students are the staffers there, with McEntire, along with other SSD teachers, to oversee the shop.
“I like meeting new people that I wouldn’t normally associate with from school,” said junior and staffer at the shop since opening Marya Hoelzer. “It is helpful to learn how to count money,” Hoelzer said.
“I learn how much stuff costs and money skills,” sophomore Martez Marti said. Marti has worked at the shop for about one year now.
“Many of our students will never be able to drive… That is why public transportation is so important to them,” McEntire said. Without public transportation passes many of the students will rely on their parents or guardians. The students also use the passes to learn how to use public transportation.
Since opening, the coffee shop sells on average to “50 students and staff each day… $100 is made each day… That is before we take into account the coffee and creamer,” McEntire said.
The shop made some changes over the summer.
“We added jazz, a new menu, changed the creamers we offer and worked with Chartwells (the company who runs school lunchs at Webster) to make sure that we were meeting nutritional standards with our cookies,” McEntire said. The shop offers coffee both iced and hot.
The shop is open from 7 to 10 a.m. each day and is located next to the weight room hallway by the lunch room
