Desserts Can Be Good: Ridgewood Students Learn By Managing Snack Carts

RIDGEWOOD, NJ — Teachers at the Ridgewood public schools have been using snack carts to support in-class learning and real-world skill development.

Seltzer, coffee, snack bars, and chips are just a few of the items stored in small pantries and on snack carts in classrooms as students learn math and reading while conducting transactions.

The long-time program for special services students continues to expand, with children in the 18-21, high school, middle, elementary, and even pre-kindergarten classes now running small snack cart businesses.

“Every Friday at the high school, two students are selected to offer and sell items from the snack cart to the staff,” said P.R.E.P. (Practical, Real-Live Education and Preparation Program) teacher Kristin Murphy. “Students follow a written schedule to navigate the building and arrive at the various classrooms and staff offices.”

While operating the snack cart, students learn social, money, direction-following, and other everyday life skills, including learning to greet and interact with the customers, explain the menu options, answer questions from the staff (a.k.a. customers), accept payment, and make change if needed.

The students take inventory of the products, participate in purchasing new inventory, organize the carts, sell the items, and calculate their earnings. Once back at class, the students learn to calculate any profit made.

The district’s 18-21 program, School Transition & Employment Program for Student Success or STEPSS, began their snack cart back in 2021.

“STEPSS students are preparing to transition to post-academic employment and the snack cart helps them to develop and fine-tune these real-world skills,” said STEPSS teacher Patrick DeFlora. “The skills a simple cart develops is extensive and ranges from inventory management to customer-interaction skills, money management to purchasing and distribution.”

This year, the STEPSS program added school-made muffin mix kits to its inventory, creating new opportunities for the students to learn how to use kitchen tools, follow recipes, package the mixes, and label and distribute the product.

The snack cart program arrived at Ridge Elementary’s Ridgewood Intensive Services (RISe) Program and Hawes Elementary School’s Strategic Actions for Innovative Learning (SAIL) Program earlier this year. At the elementary level, the food cart helps students to develop and practice social norms, communication, money management, and team building.

“Former SAIL now Glen School teacher Leanne Popishil suggested the snack cart for our Hawes program,” said SAIL teacher Michelle Golden. “When my father-in-law offered to build us a cart from scratch wood in his garage, we knew we could do it. Now, the cart is off and rolling!”

The skills learned are important, but so are the smiles of the students and enjoyment that staff get from seeing the cart come rolling down the hallways.

“Not only do our students love working on the snack cart, but faculty are always so excited to see our students and buy a snack,” added Murphy. “It is great for students to get out of the classroom, socialize, and learn valuable skills that will follow them outside of the classroom.”

For more information on Ridgewood Public Schools Special Programs, visit the district website.