By Carm Saimbre
Making its debut at TJ this year, The Silver Patriot Café is held during all lunch shifts on the last Friday of every month for staff members, courtesy of the Learning for Life program. Taught by Mrs. Roberts and Mrs. O’Sullivan, Learning for Life is a program dedicated to students with severe disabilities.
So how exactly did The Silver Patriot Café come to be?
“We had to go through several levels of approval: Mrs. Tarr, administration and the Health Department,” Mrs. Roberts said in regards to getting the idea of the café off the ground. After many dedicated hours of hard work and lengthy meetings, The Silver Patriot Café (named by the Learning for Life students) got the green light and was ready for takeoff.
What goes into pulling off this event every last Friday of the month? For each café, the students come together and decide on what lunch will be provided to their customers. Then, the students make the real-time business calls to local grocery stores and restaurants to get the best bang for their buck.
In the days preceding the event, the students make their own advertisements, menus and centerpieces to decorate the classroom for a restaurant-like atmosphere.
“Mrs. O’Sullivan and I both do the grocery shopping the Thursday before the café,” Roberts said. They also prepare the food, leaving the rest of the work in the hands of their students.
The day of the café, separate jobs are assigned to each student, ranging from Set Up Crew to Food Runners. The lunch itself usually consists of an entrée, side, chips, dessert and a drink: all for a mere five dollars!
“The more people attend, the more real it is for the kids because it gives them experience,” Mrs. O’Sullivan said, making a very good point. Not only is it fun for the students, but the experience they acquire here at TJ can be used as they progress on and enter the workforce.
Mrs. O’Sullivan and Mrs. Roberts hope The Silver Patriot Café will not only grow to be an event where teachers come together for a nice lunch, but also where the Learning for Life students can gain the experience of running a restaurant right at their home school.
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