East's pancake breakfast flat-out hits the spot
Students enjoy the return of spring café
Wauwatosa East High School students can purchase two types of pancakes, breakfast meats, coffee, juices and other items at the Zero Hour Cafe that opens every Thursday before classes begin by the School's East Career Connections Co-op class. Photo By C.T. Kruger
The smell of pancakes wafting through the halls is enough to encourage students to show up early at Wauwatosa East High School.
Students in the school's Career Connections Co-op class are again running this Zero Hour Café, a spring fixture at East since it began in 1991. They cook breakfast for their peers before school Thursdays through April.
The café serves a real need among students, said teacher and café coordinator Vicki Loving.
"So many of the kids did not have time to have a good solid breakfast before they came to school," she said.
The café, run entirely by Loving and her co-op students, serves up hot pancakes, fresh-baked muffins, "real juice (not the fake stuff)," sausage and bacon at bargain prices.
In addition to providing a nutritious breakfast for East students, staff and parents, the café gives the students who staff it a chance to practice the basics of starting and running a small business.
Early morning helpings
Kallyn Hyges, one of the 18 students who run the café, said showing up early on the first day was tough, but the business is going well now that it's up and running.
"We had to be at school at 6:30 in the morning, and a lot of people (in the class) aren't morning people," Hyges said.
Learning better teamwork skills has helped the effort, she said, and students have started having fun with it, despite the early mornings.
"Everybody's there smiling and being all perky."
The café started Feb. 18 and will run about 10 weeks, Loving said, though the exact duration depends on demand.
"As long as we have hungry people on Thursday mornings, we'll keep on selling our pancakes," she said.
Proceeds fund scholarships for students and appreciation activities for the students' co-op employers.
Now a tradition
When the café started, Loving said she thought it would be a one-time thing.
"It caught on so much that the next year's co-op class wanted to do it," she said.
Nearly 20 years later, students have come to expect the Zero Hour Café each year. Loving, who describes herself as "not a morning person," joked that she secretly hopes students will forget about the café, but they never do. It's become an institution. Each spring, younger students, who have heard about the pancakes from older siblings, start asking about it.
As years have passed, the café has expanded its offerings and brought in teachers and the school bands to perform music for students.
It's fun, but Zero Hour Café is also a real business endeavor. Entirely self-sufficient, the café's proceeds pay for all supplies and ingredients.
Career-minded class
Zero Hour Café is just one element of the Career Connections Co-op class - part of a unit on entrepreneurship.
The primary focus of the class is to pair 12th-graders with a part-time job at an area employer matching their career aspirations. During class time, students learn how to navigate the world of adult employment.
Class lessons include learning about diversity in the workplace, communicating with different types of supervisors and customers, getting promoted, teamwork, dealing with workplace issues and professionalism.
At work, students work with their employers to create learning targets that work hand-in-hand with the classroom curriculum.
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