This year the South high coffee shop is under new management. Mr. Ziehm, a fairly new teacher to South, took over teaching the Coffee Shop Career Development class after former teacher Tiffany Geise left the school last year. Since he took over this class, Mr. Ziehm has made a number of changes including moving the stand out into the hall and purchasing new technology to accept credit and debit card payments. “I knew of the coffee shop [previously] in this room mostly because I’m also a special ed teacher. But even as a staff member, I felt a little uneasy coming into this room to buy coffee because it felt like I was moving in on their territory or interrupting. I think a lot of students didn’t really know about [the shop] and it was just sort of awkward,” Ziehm commented, “I think having it out in the hallway makes a big difference and makes it available to everybody. We also accept credit cards now and I think that has made a big difference in accessibility.”
In former years, the program had used Ms. Geise’s own personal supplies and equipment, so this year the opening of the coffee shop was delayed until late November due to the wait for a grant from the South High Foundation to buy new equipment.
According to Mr. Ziehm the shop first opened around 10 years ago and “is designed to be completely run by the students.” Their duties include “stocking all of the equipment, making the coffee, they’re involved in the process of ordering the beans and cups and lids and all that kind of stuff and keeping track of the accounting.” Current junior at South Linda Sue shares that her favorite task in the class is “Filling hot cocoa and coffee”. Some of her favorite customers are Mr. Ryan and Mr. Ziehm.
“We buy our beans from Dogwood Coffee. Their philosophy is ‘coffee for all’ so their mission statement I think really aligned with what we’re doing. It’s not about profit, it’s not about having a big chain or lots of customers, it’s not about the business itself, it’s about making [the coffee] accessible and making a valuable partnership between [our program] and [the other students]” Mr. Ziehm said, “We make a little bit of money, but the money goes right back into the school. It’s classroom supplies, or field trips for the students, things like that.”
Although the shop offers fruit juices and teas, its biggest sellers are coffee among staff and hot cocoa among students. In the future, Mr. Ziehm hopes to create a more permanent coffee shop structure in the hall.
