Special Needs Students Gain Competition-Level Barista Skills
My students need professional espresso grinders, coffee service equipment, and professional barista tools to move their student-run cafe to community-status level.
Our high school special education students are trying to create meaningful work for themselves. They have a dream of running a cafe in the community that would be an inclusive space for young adults to meet and build a better world where those with disabilities have equal opportunities.
Our high school special education students are on the verge of vocational greatness!
These students, who struggle with significant disabilities, passionately run a cafe that serves the school community. They have the unique pride and self-respect that comes with doing work that has both social capital and genuine, meaningful service to others. They want to be the best of the best. They operate a beautiful La Marzocco espresso machine that was donated to them. These students first pitched the project to the PTA and won a grant to fix the espresso machine up and install a 220v outlet in our classroom. Now they just need some professional grinders and barista tools! This equipment is necessary to the quality of the products (fresh coffee) and to the skills (grinding, tamping, serving, etc.) that are needed to work in a cafe. These students are on the verge of having a cafe that matches any of the cafes in the Northwest. They just need your help with the remaining equipment.
My Project
Your donation will buy equipment that every espresso vendor has and bring our students' cafe up to professional specifications. Your dollars will buy two professional coffee grinders made specifically to complement our commercial espresso machine. Your donation will buy some missing parts for the espresso machine, a tool to keep it tuned, and barista tools that will allow students to work on barista-competition-level skills: tamping and pulling the espresso. Additionally, your donation will buy four coffee serving carafes that will allow students to cater meetings at the school such as the principal's administrative meetings, special education meetings, and teachers' union gatherings.
This equipment will allow our special education students to develop the skills that they long to develop.
It will allow them to work in a way that mirrors real working environments in the community, to obtain their food handler's cards, and it will allow them to gain real-world experience in a business environment. These skills will serve as both a basis for employment and will help these students develop the self-esteem that only comes from doing genuinely meaningful work.
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