The Tiger Cafe made its debut earlier this school year at Erie High, and teachers couldn’t be happier as they get their favorite coffee delivered to their classroom from students with passion towards serving their favorite drinks.
The school is built up of many small communities, and one of the most notable is the family built around the Tigers Together Program. Consisting of students with differing abilities and other student mentors, the atmosphere in and out of the classroom thrives with friendship and positive energy.
The cafe itself stands out since it is all student run by students with differing abilities, with help from the mentors in the class when needed. The idea sprouted from the head director of the cafe and the teacher of the special education classroom, Ally Meyer. She took inspiration from a coffee shop she found in Castle Rock, CO called “The Collective”, which is a shop staffed by all individuals with differing abilities.
Meyer mentions how multiple times a day she would have her students make and bring her coffee, and there sprouted the idea of the Tiger Cafe. Working together with Justin Carpenter, they pitched the cafe to the principal Josh Griffin, who immediately loved the idea.
Meyer specifically pushed for the cafe to become a weekly event because “[they] wanted to give our students an on-the-job experience while they are in high school to prepare them for working after [high school].”
The cafe is only accessible for staff members to order from, but over the next few years Meyer hopes to expand it to be accessible for students as well. Each week, Meyer sends out a google form to the teachers to place their coffee orders, where “[the teachers] have to fill out their name, classroom, whether they want a hot or cold drink, and they can order from a whole list of different lattes and cappuccinos.”
Once the cafe has all their orders, the students get to work making and delivering the coffees on Thursdays and Fridays. One of the seniors in the class, Kaitlyn Hartley, expresses her love for not only making the coffee but seeing the excitement on the teachers faces when they get the coffee delivered to their door.
All of the staff have their go-to orders, and Hartley mentions some of her favorites to deliver to, including Ken Ailey, where she expresses,“He gets a hot cocoa every time, but with nothing on it, not even whip cream!”
Even the mentors of the classroom enjoy working in the cafe. Kayla Kirchoffner is a senior mentor and in her second year of the Tigers Together program. She emphasizes how, “working with the kids and seeing them develop, and just interacting with them makes the cafe and the program a lot of fun to be a part of.”
Watching the students in the Tigers Together program look forward to seeing their favorite teachers and taking their drink orders is something that puts smiles on both teachers and students’ faces, as well as bringing people together through community and kindness.
