KEARNS, Utah — It’s hard not to love a warm drink on a cold winter morning and teachers at a local middle school would probably agree. Luckily for them, they have some young baristas who deliver at the end of every school week
When teachers and staff at Kearns Junior High School need a morning pick me up, the coffee cart is ready to serve.
"Teachers rush to get their orders in, we cap it at 20 and then the students prep, make, deliver the coffee," explained Rai Pattison, the school's essential elements teacher.
The Kearns Coffee Cart serves up hot coffee, iced coffee, an assortment of tea, and hot chocolate.
"They'll only do so many people, so we race to get in and do the order," said school registar Michelle Raymond.
The cart's baristas are made up of students in Ms. Rai's class.
"Some students are writing the teacher's name on the labels, some kids are stamping our logo onto the coffee sleeves, some kids are setting up the cart, making the coffee, practicing the money skills," said Pattison.
During the day, the student baristas wear their yellow aprons to serve drinks topped with whipped cream and fun-flavored syrups.
"I like making coffee for the teachers," explained students Daylnn and Evann Monk.
The kids have a wide range of abilities, but everyone plays a part in the coffee cart.
"For our students that are non-speaking, we use switches, or they look like buttons, we can record voices for them to press and say welcome to the KCC, or record a joke, then they can use it to tell the joke," said Pattison.
Student Tryniti Hamel used her iPad to tell a joke about why the donkey didn't cross the road. The answer: he saw what happened to the zebra.
The coffee cart is a way for the students to learn job skills within the walls of the school and also get a couple "Ms. Rai Dollars" to spend at the class reward store and buy activities, time on iPads, and snacks.
Pattison got the idea for cart from one of her previous mentors, and its idea and execution is admired by faculty and students.
"Ms. Rai is so incredible, she loves the kids, she wants them to be successful, she teaches them how to work, she genuinely cares about them and wants them to find success," added Raymond.
After the students fulfill every order, they always end by saying, "Thank you for supporting the KCC."
"I think a lot of the issues people see in the world with inclusion just come from being unfamiliar or nervous or not knowing how to interact with people that are different than you," Ms. Rai said. "It's really important to me that this school feels like these kids are people they can say hey to in the hallway."
