T-R PHOTO BY LANA BRADSTREAM Iowa Valley Community College District Pre-employment Transition Coordinator Ashley Pool shows Simeon Key how to brew some espresso during the first coffee shop pop up at Marshalltown Community College on Wednesday. The pop up will return on July 10.

A special pop up was at Marshalltown Community College (MCC) on Wednesday — a first-time coffee bar operated by special education students.

Iowa Valley Community College District (IVCCD) Pre-employment Transition Coordinator Ashley Pool trained the students how to do the tasks and supervised their work during the four-hour operation. Within 40 minutes of opening for the first time, the students fulfilled more than 25 orders of lattes for free-will donations.

“We’re excited for the turnout,” she said. “The Martha-Ellen Tye group was here, the Chamber, parents and grandparents. We’re pretty happy with the turnout so far, especially for the first one. We were a little nervous and had some hiccups along the way.”

One of the hiccups was a blown fuse, but Pool said they successfully maneuvered, fixed the issue and continued. Fortunately, everyone involved knew some things could go wrong, and they were grateful the customers were patient.

“My worry was we have a small espresso machine, but everyone has been doing really well with waiting and allowing [the students] to learn, because it is a learning curve,” Pool said. “They’ve all picked up on it very well.”

The coffee shop received a donation from the Martha-Ellen Tye foundation to buy the necessary supplies, something Pool is thankful for.

“It’s crazy to think how expensive it would be if you were to open a coffee shop,” she said, laughing. “We didn’t get a super expensive [espresso] machine, but it’s really decent. We are very thankful they donated and we are able to provide this. Otherwise we might be serving coffee out of a Keurig or a pot.”

Pool said for the first pop up, they wanted to focus on the basics to teach the students, hence the only drink was hot or iced lattes in four different flavors — vanilla, sugar-free vanilla, caramel and white chocolate. The types of coffee were courtesy of Muddy Waters at the Tremont. The Coffee Bar used Muddy Waters French roast for the dark roast, the medium was Rainforest and the house blend was Muddy Waters decaf.

Pool said they also offered a blueberry crumble flavor of the day. For the next coffee bar on July 10, she wants to provide customers with a s’mores specialty drink and some donuts or cookies. More likely, Pool said the special drink will be iced as the weather is expected to be hot.

“We hope to just build on their skills,” she said. “We want to eventually have them attempt the frothing. We will add that skill later. We didn’t want to overwhelm them with trying to froth the milk.”

Pool said the pop up was a collaboration between IVCCD and Iowa Vocational Rehab Services as part of the summer program.

“We decided to do a coffee shop because MCC doesn’t have one, so we thought it would be neat, especially on this side of town,” she said. “We hope during the school year to bring students in to continue this work experience. In the schools, it is hard to find them this kind of opportunity.”

If The Coffee Bar continues into the fall, Pool said the menu will adapt to the outside temperature. In the future, she hopes to make the pop up permanent.

“If it’s popular and in demand on this side, we would definitely want to keep this open more,” Pool said. “In my previous job, they had something like this, run by people in the special education program. It was such a cool thing to watch them grow. If a student was shy, they could carry on a conversation with a customer. It’s little things like that.”

She added they do not want to take away from the coffee shops in Marshalltown, or from the planned coffee shop at the Orpheum.

“We’d be able to work with them and if they needed to use this space, we’d be more than willing,” Pool said.

The Coffee Bar featured 11 students. Open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., students worked two shifts. The first shift opened up and the second shift closed.

“That way everybody can test everything, so it’s not 11 people all at once,” she said.

Pool said the students working the Coffee Bar learn communication skills, how to follow orders, count money and more. They also learn how to fulfill customers’ orders, which could be customized a little. She said they provided the flavors, along with skim, whole and almond milks and could give customers extra shots of espresso.

The order forms had codes, to make it easier for students who struggle with reading to fill orders. Pool said the options had symbols next to them, and those symbols were also on the requested ingredients.

“That way, they know what to grab,” she said. “We try to stick to this for their sake. We do have students who are able to write, so we have them test those skills, too.”

As the students tried their hands at the different tasks, they left no station empty.

“Hopefully, eventually they will not need as much supervision,” Pool said. “They will always have staff, but we might be able to back away and watch, giving them the confidence.”

FUTURE COFFEE BARS:

The Coffee Bar will return July 10, July 17, July 24 and July 31, and will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Dejardin Hill at Marshalltown Community College, 3702 S. Center St.

Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.