As Cafe 116 made their reopening on Oct. 10th, new changes were implemented to the shop. The Cafe reopening usually happens within the first few weeks of school starting back up, but this year it took them around one month before they were able to reopen. Due to having a new life skills teacher, Ms. Abigayle Pritchard, and new changes to the cafe, it took a little bit longer to open back up than students and staff had expected.
The Cafe serves the students a variety of products. They offer iced coffee, hot coffee, lemonade, hot chocolate, macchiatos and sometimes students bake goods available to sell as well. The Cafe has been a tremendous success and addition to the school.
“My staff have been looking forward to the opening of the cafe even before the first day of school. The excitement and motivation in the cafe is through the roof,” Pritchard said. As of opening back up, Cafe 116’s drinks and sweets have already been a huge hit.
“The best drink at Cafe 116 definitely has to be the french vanilla cappuccino,” senior Kayden Curcio said.
There have been rather big changes with the schedule of the cafe this year. The cafe was open during all lunches and Personal Learning Time (PLT) last year, but this year it is only open during PLT. A lot of students like to enjoy the cafe, but not all of them are able to make it there during PLT.
“I worry about serving the whole school! I know everyone loves the cafe, so I hope that they can find time in their busy schedule to visit us during PLT,” Pritchard stated.
Pritchard has given these students many opportunities with the reopening of the Cafe. The students love it, and so does she.
“This is my first year teaching at Freedom and I was nervous about opening up the cafe! I heard how respected and loved Cafe 116 was… I had some big shoes to fill! I wanted to maintain the greatness of the store and knew this could be done with the help from my amazing students and paraprofessionals. The students taught me everything I needed to know about Cafe 116. They were great teachers! I was impressed with their knowledge, the pride they take in their work and everything the cafe had to offer. They made learning about the cafe so easy,” Pritchard said.
The Cafe is set to run every day during PLT for the remainder of the school year, unless there are complications on any given day. With the whole school supporting Cafe 116, it has been a huge hit with students and staff members.
The students running the cafe get experience with a job and responsibilities like any other job, and other students get to enjoy the cafe and have a good experience with it as well.