Update: High school's Starbucks "store" will be adults-only

The Starbucks at King’s Fork High School in Suffolk, VA will be open for an hour each school morning from 7:15 to 8:15 and it will only serve school employees and official adult visitors to the high school. Starbucks will be providing "on-campus, hands-on training for students with disabilities who are participating in the Starbucks Kidz project." Sales from the coffee booth will be used to purchase inventory from Starbucks. Starbucks provides inventory for Starbucks Kidz programs at a 15 percent discount. According to the contract, monthly costs for the school system will not exceed $350 per month. (Suffolk News Herald)

Comments

A school program with the word KIDZ in the title? What do the English teachers think?

Kidz?

I have mixed feelings on this -- at first I thought it was no better/worse than having school kids sell fundraising products (pizza, candy bars, wrapping paper, etc.)

But is it a program only for disabled students? Then it's really preparing those kids for fast food jobs.

It's important to teach life skills to those who may have difficulty, but, I don't know, it seems wrong to make the kids serve coffee to the teachers every morning. Maybe it's just me. Especially since I don't know the details of the arrangement, it's hard to say.

[Christy]

What are they going to carding people to serve them coffee? Puhleese.

If they're looking at the non-juvenile market then they've got it totally wrong... When you go in to a high school trying to sell coffee you look at the kids buying power, not the teachers.

[Customer]

Starbucks is the new McDonalds. The only difference between the two is that you get better service at McD's

[-m]

Qualify that insipid statement.

Starbucks has many locations = New McDonalds.

Your logic is drool worthy.

[French Barista]

I don't think we're looking at this in the right light.

This isn't a business project of Starbucks' Their involvement is really only that they're providing inventory. Since it's an educational project, the inventory gets a 15% discount. But that seems to be the extent of the "program".

This is a project of the school's. A way to supplement the special education curriculum with some real-world hands on problem solving situations. It's not "making" the disabled kids "serve" the teachers. It's presenting these kids with situations in which they have to communicate with people, handle money, and focus on several things at once. It will help foster interpersonal skills and self-confidence above and beyond basic service skills. Furthermore, the article implies that the students are also invovled in the more business-oriented aspects of the store: management, marketing, inventory, etc. That increases the educational potential of the project exponentially and blows the argument that they're only being "trained for foodservice" out of the water.

The decision to limit service to adults was probably born of compromise and with the intent to protect the educational value of the project. For one, the store is only open for an hour. If students were flocking to it, many likely wouldn't get served and the chaos and confusion would be increddible. Also, if it's a program for disabled students, there's always the worry about putting them in situations where other students might abuse or take advantage of them. Given the amount of attitude I, a fully capable adult person, have taken from bratty teens, I can only imagine how potentially abusive and bullying a situation like that could become. And lastly, with the food-censorship craze these days, there'd probably be an outcry about cafiene hyping students up if they served students.

I think this is a program that will have its difficulties but that, overall, has a lot of good in it. I think it's well-intentioned and that the negative impacts would be minimal. I don't understand why everyone reacts so cynically to it...

[starbucks lover]

I was really liking the idea of the starbucks class. I was even planning on doing a story over it in my journalism class. Everyone here thought it was a great idea. But if its going to be adults only I dont think they should do it. I guess I just had a totally different idea about what it was going to be like.
It would be great if they could do it and have students working there and students in the line.
Does anyone agree with me?

[Rogue]

Yeah, just picture a bunch of snot nosed kids with frappucinos in their hands, all with hot sleeves on because the cups are "cold", and "they sweat". No shit a cold drink is cold, AND they condensate. Wake up people. People have been learning job skills long before the bucs came around. Well, I do think it would be fun to watch kids with the palsy make drinks. Keep that in mind next time you go into a real store that serves over 35 customers every half hour. I don't think the kid with the palsy's gonna speed things up any. And yes, you the customer would get mad at the rest of us because things aren't going your speed. "Oh boo hoo, I had to wait fifteen minutes for my precious half-caf two and a half pump mocha one sweet and low non fat but with whip latte, cinnamon powder on top, double cupped and a sleeve!"

[Bob Anderson]

I am a special education teacher at Tallwood High School in Virginia Beach. We are interested in discussing a Starbuck's as our coffee source. To whom should I address questions regarding Starbucks as our coffee supplier?
Bob Anderson
Vocational/Work Experience Program
Tallwood High School
757-648-5700 ext. 58778