If you ever need something to wake you up, and you crave something like coffee or some baked goods like muffins, then head down to the cafe located at the 8th building. Open on Wednesdays and Fridays, come around to the cafe before school or during nutrition to go and grab something to satisfy your stomach. The cafe opened again this year on August 24 and had a pretty successful launch, with many students coming by to order. The cafe is run by Ms. Carrie Smith, who is also the Food and Nutrition teacher, and has 14-15 students helping to run the cafe, three of them are returning students, while the rest of them are new to running the cafe, Smith said to, “be patient with this new crew” since they are new and are learning how everything works.”

When it is the day when the cafe is open, around 7:45 a.m., Smith and two other students come early to prep everything up and get the day started. They start by making 20 of their most popular item, which is Frozen Hot Chocolate because people order them so much. They get through the day and by the end of the day, clean everything in Smith’s words “Hit the reset button” on the whole cafe, then start the whole process over again the next time the cafe is opened. The cafe has been open for five years and even had a remodel a few years back, but only was able to successfully launch last year, since Covid-19 hit and it hurt the previous launches of the cafe as well as the old version of the cafe before its remodeling.

A little tip is to order ahead of time, a lot of people order from the cafe and they always reach their maximum capacity of customers very quickly. Smith has even been working on an online ordering system and has even said, “If things keep going smoothly, that they’ll be able to release this feature very soon,” though no date has been confirmed on when this will be released. The cafe has many foods and drinks you can get, some include smoothies, muffins, bagels, nutrition bars, cragles, and coffee cakes to name a few.

One more thing Smith said is, “Students can’t use the cafe to excuse tardy.” She has had incidents where students would try to use the cafe as a way to excuse a tardy. They are not allowed to do that, you can’t excuse your tardy with the cafe, the rules of a tardy still apply to you. So if you don’t have a free sticker (which you get if you have a free period), then head to your class. 

If you’re interested in running the cafe, then you will first have to take both Food & Nutrition 1 and 2, before taking Food & Nutrition 3, which is running the cafe. The reason that you should consider trying to take Food & Nutrition 3 and run the cafe is that it teaches you about business and gives you hands-on experience. Many people who have run the cafe previously have gone on to have many opportunities for themselves because of their experience in running the cafe. So, if you’re interested, then consider trying to take Food & Nutrition 1 – 3.