STEP Students Open Coffee Shop

With a trial run under their belts, students in ’s (STEP) are all set to launch a new school business called STEP’n Coffee.

The plan is to sell coffee and related breakfast items to l staff three mornings a week from 7:30 to 8:15 a.m. from a “kiosk” set up near Door 1.

“Some of our students will be runners with order forms and they will go out into different wings and take orders, bring them back to us and then we’ll deliver their order to them” said Melanie Phelan, the teacher who is heading up the project. “This is a little more efficient than having staff come to us. It’s a long haul for some of them.”     

Opening STEP’n Coffee took a lot of forethought … and some consultation with low incidence teacher Lauren Thomas who heads up a similar effort at Bolingbrook High School.

“The students have done all the work,” Phelan said. “We’ve just been helping them get to where they need to go.”

That includes spending time with the students to show them how to make a business plan and all the issues that arise any time a new business opens including sanitization and safety. 

“We also talked to the Brooks staff and sent surveys to ask them what they would like to see us selling, and we took samples over there,” Phelan said. “The students made flyers and posters and decorated cards. We pretty much have done everything it would take to open a business.”

“We hope to be able to help people get going in the morning,” said student Christine Tucker. “This is my first time selling coffee.”

Besides coffee, students are also selling hot and cold tea, parfaits, granola bars and breakfast sandwiches. Green Mountain donated a coffee maker and some coffee for the initial startup, but everything else was purchased by the business.

“The money will go back into the STEP program,” said student Claudia Linder, who is pretty certain the business will be profitable. “People like coffee.”

STEP is designed to assist eligible 18-to-21-year-old special needs students in the district with independent living skills and vocational education needs.