‘Start your day the Panther way’

Experience and learning are at the heart of Creston Community School District’s new coffee shop, Panther Perk. Run by seventh and eighth graders in the middle school’s School-to-Work Program, Panther Perk hopes to start serving teachers and staff in February.

Panther Perk will be run out of what was once Union 25 Co., now located on Academic Avenue between the high school and elementary/middle school building. The small coffee shack was first purchased by the school district in early 2024 with the plan to pair special education students with members of the high school’s Students of Service group to run it.

“I not only want to build the employability for all our students, but especially for those who might otherwise not be considered employable, and they’re going to leave high school with job experience on their resume. To me, that’s just the coolest part,” Callie Anderson said.

Anderson used to serve as both the ECC principal and the special education director. However, when Anderson became principal of the elementary school alongside the ECC, her role as special education director was dropped. No longer able to lead the program, Panther Perk was seemingly dead in the water.

New start

The coffee shop was originally purchased with a $26,000 STEM BEST grant, and it is a STEM BEST grant that is bringing the dream back to life.

The STEM BEST program “encourages teachers and industry professionals to work side-by-side to develop a work-based learning model that incorporates STEM subjects with experiential learning opportunities to emphasize high-demand skills for the workplace.” Grants issued work to further this mission.

Middle school STEM teacher Kim Fourez applied for another grant for the program in October to help get the coffee shop running. In December, Fourez learned that her application was a success and the program had been awarded a $15,000 STEM BEST grant. Fourez has helped the school gain STEM BEST grants in the past as well.

“We didn’t really know that we were going to do it [at the beginning of the year],” student Edwin Dresback said. “We kind of got this class and it was supposed to be student support squad, go around and helping with stuff around the school, and then she had said something about a coffee shop. Other schools did it and it turned out pretty well.”

Fourez said once the students learned about the opportunity, they were enthusiastic to get started. However, before any work on the physical shop could begin, the class had to begin planning. The students worked together to propose traffic flow and parking, come up with a business plan and design a logo, getting help from local experts along the way.

“The one thing with the STEM BEST grant is to bring in community people so that when they go out into the community, they’re going to have some networking already done,” Fourez said. “We had Kelsey Buck from Greater Regional come and talk to us about our logo.”

The class also decided on a motto: start your day the Panther way.

With early planning and graphic design done, the students moved on to inventory.

“We counted all the supplies and everything we had. We went over to where it is and cleaned it out and just tried to count how much stuff we had and what we’d need to purchase,” student Gracie Pashek said. “We looked at the expiration dates on the syrups and just tried to figure out what we could order.”

Soon, the students will learn how to use Square, a point-of-sales system, and start testing coffee beans to brew. Next week, they’ll take a field trip to Pammel Park, a coffee company in Winterset formerly used by Union 25 Co.

“I want you guys to sample the coffee beans and ask them all the questions, because he will be our supplier if that’s who we, as a group, decide on,” CMS Principal Lesa Downing said to the class. The students make all decisions regarding the shop through vote, including which coffee beans to use.

Creative ideas

As students plan for a February opening, fun ideas are coming up to celebrate Valentine’s Day.

“There’s a lot of talk about trying to dye the whipped cream or cold foam red or pink, and getting little sleeves that have premade hearts on them, or putting those little candies that have the positive affirmations on them on the top, stuff like that, different ideas of what we can do to bring in the holiday,” student Hendrix Kalvig said. “I think we talked about for fall even pumpkin spice, seasonal drinks so people want to keep coming to try the new stuff.”

Along with fun designs, the class is hoping to offer coffee-grams as part of the holiday celebration. Or, for the students, hot chocolate-grams.

“For the kids it will be hot chocolate, for the adults it will be coffee, but to send a cup of coffee to someone with a positive message on it and we have a little heart that we’re going to stick on the outside of the cup,” Downing said. “We’re going to really doll it up.”

Students will present to the school board on Monday to get final approval, and then it’s off to the races.

Active education

While running a small business has been fun for the students, they’ve also learned a lot along the way.

“We needed to know about licensing; we needed to know about all the food and why we have to have three sinks. All these different things,” Fourez said.

Some students have thrived in graphic design, while others enjoyed the financial side. Student Andrea John said her favorite part was learning new business skills.

Once the shop is open and the students have learned the ropes, they’ll also get to try their hand at leadership.

“Everyone is going to try something, and then at some point, we’re going to add more people, and then we’ll already know what to do so we’ll be able to train people,” student Opal Carroll said. Fourez said fifth and sixth grade students will eventually join in some of the daily tasks.

And while students have learned a lot, they aren’t the only ones to be taught something new.

“That’s one thing that’s different about people my age opening a business and them, they don’t feel hindered,” Fourez said. “They’re like, what about this and what about that? When you get older, you’re like, I’m not so sure about that. They have no fear of throwing ideas out, and I need to be that way, so they’ve taught me a lot about that.”