Talawanda High School’s coffee shop “The Perfect Blend” offers more than a morning pick me up. It’s Chase’s smiling face greeting you at the front table. It’s Bailey’s dedication to giving back the perfect change. It’s Emaralys’, “Have a great day,” when a customer leaves.
The Perfect Blend is a coffee shop located in Talawanda High School run by students with disabilities. The goal is to provide life, employment and social skills to the students. The shop is just one of the many opportunities offered by the Class 23, a transition to work program for students ages 14 to 22 at Talawanda.
On Monday mornings, the program cleans up after events at Hanover Reserve, and in the afternoon it flips into an Airbnb to practice laundry, cleaning and cooking. Tuesdays, the students work at the coffee shop, the Animal Clinic of Oxford and in the McCullough-Hyde dish room. Thursdays they go to Woodlawn Country Manor retirement home, the Hampton Inn and a book club for adults with disabilities at Lane Library. On Fridays, they’re back taking coffee orders and they go out to lunch together.
Jenny George, Class 23 intervention specialist, started in her position five years ago after working at the middle school for 16 years. Amid the pandemic, a Talawanda teacher applied for a $2,000 grant through the Oxford Community Foundation for the shop, but George knew they couldn’t open until the masks came off.
It started as just a coffee cart students would push around classroom to classroom and only take orders for teachers, but George knew she could do more. In 2022, The Perfect Blend opened its doors to students and teachers every Tuesday and Friday from 7:30 to 10:30 a.m, and its impact reaches far beyond the employees.
“ I do think Talawanda High School has a good sense of awareness and inclusion, because everyone starts in kindergarten with students with disabilities in their class,” George said. “Now, my kids are like celebrities at school. Everyone loves them.”
George keeps business simple, so it’s easy for students to collect payments and give correct change. All cold drinks are $3, and hot drinks are $2. They serve hot coffee, hot and iced teas, cold brew and lemonades, as well as a weekly special.
Starbucks donates the coffee every week, U.S. foods donates the cups and Bret’s Carpentry, Inc., a former Talawanda parent’s business, made the coffee bar and ordering counter the students stand behind.
Bailey Felblinger, a 15-year-old freshman with autism, said she loves making coffee because it prepares her for the real world.
“When I started here, they gave me a chance because I really wanted to learn how to have a job,” Felblinger said. “Being autistic, most people doubted me to be successful. But that is my passion, to be my true self and prove to them that I can do anything.”
She said she dreams of becoming a fashion designer, so she also works at Thread Up after school. She assists volunteers, tidies up the yarn and sorts through clothing. If fashion doesn’t work out, she wants to go to culinary school. The Perfect Blend is just step one to reaching those goals.
“They’re gaining skills, so they can go out and be really good workers,” George said. “They’re workers that will always show up, that love to come to work. They would do any job. They’ll come and stay, and I will teach them all the job skills they need.”
