Buff Bistro Chefs

Nov 2

By NICOLE HERRERA and GUADALUPE ENRIQUEZ
Tower News

Buff Bistro, Manteca High’s campus café, is open for business.

After several weeks of preparing for the launch, Special Day Class instructor Corinna Guerrero deemed Buff Bistro’s opening week a success, with more than 60 lunches sold on Thursday, Sept. 22.

The student-run café sells food Monday through Friday and opens from 8:40 a.m. to 3 p.m. Items are sold to staff only due to nutritional guidelines, and each order will be delivered to staff by the students in Guerrero’s Special Day Class. In this interactive program, the Special Education class gets to participate in the whole process, from creating the grocery list to the cooking to the actual deliveries. This ensures they get first-hand experience in managing a real café and get to execute their dreams.

Guerrero elaborated on how the program is ran and operates:
“The Buff Bistro is a student-ran café where they cook every Thursday and we make lunches for staff, so the students are responsible for coming up with the menu, doing the grocery shopping, then figuring out a budget as to how much they're going to be spending, and then marketing, getting customers to buy the lunches.”

The primary purpose of this program is to help students prepare for the real world after high school by teaching them vocational and social skills.

“We are working on functional and vocational life skills,” Guerrero started. “So, we're hoping the kids would learn some professional skills, like using a cash register and learning how to take orders, which are skills they would use at a restaurant.”

Madison Edwards, a student involved with Buff Bistro, says she’s mostly thrilled for the cooking and getting to serve the staff. She revealed her favorite item on the menu would have to be the tacos, which was a lunch special on Sept. 22, honoring Hispanic Heritage Month.

Guerrero revealed, “From this month until Oct. 15, we’re focusing on Mexican food because of Hispanic Heritage Month.”

The students have been working hard and doing their best to serve food to the customers with love, Guerrero said. They've been preparing since the start of school in early August and learning different responsibilities in order to carry out the program.

“They have been training since school started,” states Guerrero. “The kids will stock up and organize the cabinets and put the items where they need to go. Then they’ll each have a shift and that’s kind of our preparation. We always work on learning the prices, learning the menu, and learning how to sell the food items to teachers.”

Daniel Lenhardt, another teacher who works alongside Guerrero, is truly appreciative of the program; he trusts that it will show students what work life is like and teach them interpersonal skills.

“I think it's a fantastic program, I think the students learn a lot from it I couldn't keep enough praise on it,” expressed Lenhardt. “It's really just for them to see not just themselves at work but at work and enjoying it, this is school so not necessarily work but it's not much different once you get into a job place.”

Laurie Harries, another teacher who helps run Buff Bistro, voices her gratification and how much this will all benefit the students. Their role as instructors and adults is about “guiding them and showing them so when they’re done with high school, they can succeed in life,” she noted.With this week’s record-setting triumph, Guerrero believes it will set Buff Bistro up for even more success. During the second week, Buff Bistro featured a meatball sub sandwich for the weekly lunch special. She hopes that this program will teach more than just the students involved. Others can learn about inclusivity and the different students on campus.