The Solon Café has some updates for the student body including new seasonal snacks, coffee and new staff members. The café is making sure they clean securely to ensure other students safety. The students in the café encourage the rest of the student body to come visit during first or second period to grab a drink or a snack.

The café is located at the end of the art hallway. It is open from 1st-2nd period, and in the café you can find a bunch of fun snacks including hash browns, cinnamon rolls, honey buns, etc. They also have school necessities such as water or a flavored drink.

According to café teacher Dina Weber, there could be no operation of the café while doing online learning, so this was hard for both the teachers and the students who work in the café.

“It was really hard, transitioning to online [when] we completely shut the café down, there was no operation of the café as far as handing out food and interaction with other students,” Weber said. “We rely on this because it provides so many great opportunities for the students who work here. There was some behind the scenes stuff that still needed to be done like moving things to the freezer because we didn’t know how long the shutdown would be.”

When the café shut down in March 2020, Weber says it was hard to switch students from in person learning in the café to having no café online. Weber developed ways the students could still engage in activities like working in the café.

“There was work posted in google classroom where students would do job exploration activities and surveys,” Weber said. “They would learn about different careers and what was interesting to them, things they would like to learn more about. I also did some food prep tasks the students could do at home, they would have to make sure that they are working safely with a parent or adult around to prepare their lunch for the day”.

As far as opening the café back up to the student body after a year and half of no in-person classes, the café staff is excited to see familiar and old faces. The only tricky part is making sure that the café is completely safe and sanitary after transition from a pandemic into the normal school atmosphere.

“[We had many things to consider with] reopening the café, taking into consideration all the precautionary measures, what extra precautions besides our four safety steps are we going to incorporate,” Weber said. “We have always had our four steps of washing our hands, putting on an apron, wearing gloves, and a hairnet/hat if necessary. We make sure that the students working in the café and coming in to buy food have their mask on at all times and wear it properly over both the mouth and nose.”

The students working in the café spend either first or second period preparing food and serving it to the students that enter the café. This task seems to be a fun way to spend the beginning of a school day, and many of the staff at the café enjoy what they are doing.

“I think the students love working here,” Weber said. “It gives them a break from sitting down and having to do instruction. It’s a time where they can move around and do something that prepares them for when they have a job”

Bonita Prewitt is one of the teachers who works in the café, and she agrees with Weber that all the students working in the café enjoy their time there.

“I think they do enjoy working in the café, it’s the consistency of coming in and knowing what to do,” Prewitt said. ¨Some of them are very flexible with working around the café, they especially like ringing the bell and getting tips. We make a huge deal about getting the tips.¨

New employee from the café Tyler Brown talks about his duties while working in the café.

“I work only during first period, I get to be a cashier, be on task, and on time,” Brown said. “I follow directions, and I think working in the café is very beneficial to the students that prepare the food.”

When the café becomes too busy, the staff members have protocols that they like to use to make sure that the students working aren’t too overwhelmed.

¨Sometimes we talk to the students in line because they can get a little loud, and we have some students who are sensitive to the noise, so we may thank them for standing in line and being patient and then we ask them to be very patient with us,¨ Prewitt said. “What else we can do is to slow it down and take it down a level for the students working.¨

The café has some specials for the fall season like their new espresso machine, and they ask the students and staff to do their best to make a stop down. Their success relies on the student body going down to the café and getting some snacks.

¨The Success of the café and more importantly the success of the students working in the café is dependent upon the student body and the teachers as well,¨ Weber said. ¨We rely on the teachers using their passes that were distributed in the beginning of the year to send their kids down periodically to experience the café, and we also rely on all the students that are in study hall and in senior commons coming down and seeing us to experience all the wonderful things we have to offer.”