© 2025 WFAE

Mailing Address:
WFAE 90.7
P.O. Box 896890
Charlotte, NC 28289-6890
Tax ID: 56-1803808
90.7 Charlotte 93.7 Southern Pines 90.3 Hickory 106.1 Laurinburg
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Students at Charlotte’s Metro School open new café to gain job experience

From left, Horace Blakley, Metro School Principal Fermandi Dyson and Jaiden Anderson introduce the new café at Metro School.
James Farrell
/
WFAE
From left, Horace Blakley, Metro School Principal Fermandi Dyson and Jaiden Anderson introduce the new café at Metro School.

Congress has cut federal funding for public media — an $800,000 loss for WFAE. We count on readers like you to protect our nonprofit newsroom. Become a monthly member and sustain local journalism.

Students and families at Metro School, a CMS school for children with special needs, opened a new café space, where students serve up coffee and baked goods — while gaining real-world job experience.

Members of the school community applauded as they cut the ribbon on the new Metro Café at the uptown school. Trays of cookies sat on tables, coffee dispensers waited on countertops and jazzy music played as the student-members of the “coffee crew” stood in their white chefs’ uniforms to welcome guests.

“Welcome to coffee crew,” said student Jaiden Anderson. “Welcome to home living!”

The Coffee Club at Metro School started out selling coffee out of a portable cart as part of the school’s Community-Based Instruction program. But school administrators wanted to create a more authentic work environment.

“We want to make it a real-life workspace and not just on a cart because you typically wouldn't buy coffee on a cart, right? You would come to a cafe,” said Metro School principal Fermandi Dyson. “So we want to make that replicable and just kind of be able to use it so that they can transfer those skills into a job setting.”

In the new café space, students will manage orders, prepare food and drinks, and interact with customers. Catina Jenkins is the PTO president at Metro School. Her son is joining the Coffee Club program next year.

“As a parent of a child with special needs, sometimes you don't know what your child will be able to do,” Jenkins said. “But once you see a blueprint, you can see your child possibly stepping into that blueprint or possibly doing something different. And it is a very rewarding feeling.”

The cafe came together with furniture provided by IKEA and help from local Girl Scouts.

Sign up for our Education Newsletter

Select Your Email Format

SUPPORT LOCAL NEWS

No matter what happens in Congress, WFAE remains committed to our mission: to serve our community with fact-based, nonpartisan journalism. But our ability to do that depends on the strength of the financial response from the communities we serve. Please support our journalism by contributing today.


James Farrell is WFAE's education reporter. Farrell has served as a reporter for several print publications in Buffalo, N.Y., and weekend anchor at WBFO Buffalo Toronto Public Media. Most recently he has served as a breaking news reporter for Forbes.