On-campus coffee shop teaching students a ‘latte’ of job skills

There’s something wonderful brewing at Lockport Township High School and it’s not all coffee.

The L-Town Grounds coffee shop on East Campus, which officially cut the ribbon on Jan. 20, is also serving up vocational and employment skills to students who need direct instruction.

Angela Huntington, director of special education, said the coffee shop also held a soft opening in November to staff and seniors and plans to serve juniors by Valentine’s Day and sophomores by spring break.

The coffee shop provides “a real live training opportunity” for students with post-secondary employment goals, Huntington said.

“That’s difficult to do during [COVID-19] and in the community,” Huntington said. “So we needed a training lab right here on campus.”

Planning started last year. Huntington said the media center was being remodeled and the thought was, “Wouldn’t it be a great idea to serve coffee close to our media center?”

“If you walk through the school on any given morning, you’ll see students coming in with their Starbucks or their Dunkin’ Donuts coffee – it’s kind of a culture thing,” Huntington said.

But where to put the coffee shop? Especially since it required a water source.

“We worked with closely with our architects,” Huntington said, “and converted a mop closet and a bathroom.”

Staff also talked to schools that also ran functional businesses, former restaurant owners and the architects’ restaurant expert, Huntington said.

“And then we took all those great ideas and made sure we had them in our shop,” Huntington said.

For instance, barista machine is similar to the one McDonald’s uses, Huntington said. It was expensive – and worth it.

“We wanted to make sure the tools could be used for a long time and that our students would be successful in using them,” Huntington said.

Several job coaches took classes to earn their licenses in food service and sanitation since someone with that license must be onsite when the coffee shop is operating, which is during school hours, Huntington said.

Even the marketing and entrepreneur classes jumped into the planning.

“Ms. Dana Ziemba created a project for her classes to develop names and marketing campaigns,” Huntington said in a news release from Lockport Township High School. “Her classes then moved forward with six different names and logos. We then asked the student body to vote and choose L-Town Grounds based on student feedback.”

Eighteen students are currently involved with the coffee shop, with “two or three” working there for one or two class periods at a time, Huntington said. In addition to acquiring hard work skills, students are learning soft skills in a safe environment: collaborating with co-workers, taking directions from a supervisor and interacting with the public, skills that are challenging to teach in class, Huntington said.

“Sometimes our students with special needs have a hard time getting through the door to prove themselves,” Huntington said, “Having a valid work experience and supervisor reference sometimes takes away the employers’ fear of bringing in someone with special abilities.”

The shop experienced some “growing pains” along the way, she said.

For instance, the coffee shop was deluged with orders after students shared the online link. Dedicated time slots now limit the number of orders at one time, Huntington said.

Then the supplier for paper goods wasn’t accepting new clients, leaving L-Town Grounds coffee shop relying on staff making multiple shopping trips, not the most efficient option, Huntington said.

“We had to spend some more time thoughtfully planning how to pick the supplies, so we weren’t running out in the middle of the day to buy milk and things like that,” Huntington said.

Lockport Township High School isn’t the only school using coffee to teach work skills.

The Grundy County Special Education Cooperative’s R.E.A.C.H. (Realizing Educational and Career Hopes) program, which is housed at Minooka Community High School District #111 created the Coffee Cart Program, according to a news release from District 111.

For $1, staff members can order a cup of coffee or tea and R.E.A.C.H. students will deliver that order. The money is used to purchase new supplies, the release said.