Jordan Supercast

Episode 225: The Sweet Success Story of South Valley’s Student Run Soda Shop

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They make fun and flavorful soda’s for sipping and simply enjoying. On this episode of the Supercast, we take you to South Valley School’s Sip’n 7 Soda Shop.

Find out how it is helping students learn how to work in a small business, exchanging money, and making customers happy creating a customized soda to order, big or small.

Audio Transcription
[MUSIC PLAYING]

Anthony Godfrey:

Hello, and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. They make fun and flavorful sodas for students every single day.

On this episode of the Supercast, we take you to South Valley School’s Sippin' 7 Soda Shop. Find out how it is helping students learn how to work in a small business, exchanging money, and making customers happy by creating a customized soda to order, big or small. Follow us now as we head into South Valley School and meet with Principal Tammy Rajczyk.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Tammy Rajczyk:

Hello, welcome to South Valley. Glad you could be here.

Anthony Godfrey:

Hi, Tammy.

Tammy Rajczyk:

You're in for a really big surprise.

Anthony Godfrey:

OK.

Tammy Rajczyk:

I hope you're excited.

Anthony Godfrey:

I'm looking forward to it.

Tammy Rajczyk:

Should we go over to our pop shop, which is with class 7?

Anthony Godfrey:

All right. Looks like there's a lot going on today.

Tammy Rajczyk:

Yes, there is. We are highlighting you today. We have our drink of the month, Godfrey's Grinchy Gulp. I actually have it right here and along with that drink comes a fantastic necklace.

Anthony Godfrey:

Wow.

Tammy Rajczyk:

So we have a lot of big promotions going on.

Anthony Godfrey:

A necklace comes with the drink.

Tammy Rajczyk:

You are featured this month.

Anthony Godfrey:

I've never had a featured beverage. This is a moment for me. Let's grab a Godfrey's Grinchy Gulp. My first question as I see people lined up is, is the Godfrey's Grinchy Gulp popular today?

Tammy Rajczyk:

Yes, it is very popular today. Everybody is drinking it.

Anthony Godfrey:

I would hate for my first soda pop brand launch to not be a popular drink.

Tammy Rajczyk:

Right? I have been promoting it. It is delicious. Ok, so--

Anthony Godfrey:

Now, does this mean that the Gulp is Grinchy or that I'm Grinchy?

Tammy Rajczyk:

I'm going to go with the Gulp is Grinchy.

Anthony Godfrey:

Ok.

Tammy Rajczyk:

You're never Grinchy.

Anthony Godfrey:

So far. So far.

Tammy Rajczyk:

Yes. Ok, I'd like to introduce you to Codee Flores our pop shop teacher.

Anthony Godfrey:

Hi, Codee. Good to see you again.

Codee Flores:

Yes. You too.

Anthony Godfrey:

Tell me about the pop shop here at South Valley.

Codee Flores:

So here we are at Sippin' 7 Soda. We're class 7, so we had to play on words.

Anthony Godfrey:

Sippin' 7 Soda. OK, I like it.

Codee Flores:

And this is run by the students, as you see here. They are taking all the orders, doing the money, all that kind of fun stuff.

Anthony Godfrey:

Now, we were here with a Jordan Education Foundation meeting a month or two ago. And everybody benefited from getting to place their own customized drink order. And it's really cool. They've done a great job here.

Codee Flores:

So Kayla here came up with the name for the drink of the month. So why don't you show him his--

Kayla:

This is in honor of Dr. Godfrey. It's our drink of the month. It's called Godfrey's Grinchy Gulp. It comes with Mountain Dew and Blue Raspberry and Pineapple.

Anthony Godfrey:

Oh, wow.

Kayla:

The Blue Raspberry is what makes the Mountain Dew kind of turn green. And it's $2 for the drink. And it comes with a fun little Grinchy necklace. Or if you want to attach it to a purse, a bag, a backpack.

Anthony Godfrey:

That is a bargain. That is awesome.

Kayla:

Yep, we're super excited. We haven't really done a drink of the month in a while. But it's actually turned out to be a massive hit.

Anthony Godfrey:

Well, I'm very honored to have this drink named after me. And I'm very grateful that it's a hit. Let's order a drink. Talk me through the process.

Student:

OK, you have to put your name. And then if you want to get the drink of the month, you write drink of the month at the top.

Anthony Godfrey:

OK, Godfrey, can I just put D-O-T-M?

Student:

Yeah.

Kayla:

Yep.

Anthony Godfrey:

All right, I'll put a big circle around that.

Student:

And that's $2.

Anthony Godfrey:

All right and this is the 7th period class:

Kayla:

But for you, it's on us.

Anthony Godfrey:

Oh, OK.

Kayla:

Yeah, for you.

Anthony Godfrey:

As the drink's namesake, I get it.

Kayla:

As the namesake, yes.

Anthony Godfrey:

All right.

Kayla:

And then, like I said, this comes with the drink. It's a fun little Grinchy–

Anthony Godfrey:

This is very cool. I do not have a Grinch necklace, I'll tell you that.

Kayla:

You can hang it or put it around your neck or put it on purses anywhere you want.

Anthony Godfrey:

OK, that's awesome. I think I can put it on my briefcase.

Kayla:

Or hang it up on your-- or hang it up on your tree as a fun little Christmas ornament.

Anthony Godfrey:

It'll start on my briefcase. It'll end up on my tree. Thank you very much. This is really cool.

Kayla:

Then we would hand it off to one of our classmates, one of our runners in the class. And Miranda, who is our runner--

Anthony Godfrey:

Hi, Miranda.

Miranda:

I'm actually a runner, but I actually make drinks.

Anthony Godfrey:

OK.

Miranda:

I have no idea what to say.

Anthony Godfrey:

OK.

Miranda:

But yeah, I definitely make drinks.

Anthony Godfrey:

Can I run with you and let's go see the drink made?

Miranda:

Yeah, yeah, yeah let’s go do that.

Anthony Godfrey:

All right, let's go. Let's head down there.

Miranda:

That's where we make drinks.

Anthony Godfrey:

This is the drink laboratory. So I'll follow you in. Oh, wow, you have a whole rack.

Miranda:

Yeah we do. We have sodas and lemonade and anything like that.

Anthony Godfrey:

Wow, you have-- I see you’re recycling?

Miranda:

Yeah, because if they're empty, we recycle them with this box.

Anthony Godfrey:

And you have-- where did you find your display?

Miranda:

All these syrups.

Anthony Godfrey:

It looks like it's made just for the syrup.

Miranda:

We just fill them up in a cup.

Codee Flores:

Well, you know when we surplus things or have that room that nobody wants the bookshelves anymore? That is a bookshelf.

Anthony Godfrey:

It looks like an old magazine rack from the library.

Codee Flores:

It is.

Anthony Godfrey:

But it fits these syrups perfectly. Wow. That's impressive.

Codee Flores:

That’s what that is. And we want to, while we're in here, thank the JEF, too. See our cooler back there?

Anthony Godfrey:

Oh, yeah.

Codee Flores:

That was funded by Donor’s Choose. Just shout out to them for helping our soda shop. Big Yeti cooler.

Anthony Godfrey:

Yeti cooler.

Codee Flores:

So the cooler, same colors of school.

Anthony Godfrey:

Thanks to the Jordan Education Foundation and Donor’s Choose.

Codee Flores:

Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:

That's dynamite. Oh, you even have the long stirring stick. This is next-level stuff. All right.

Miranda:

Sorry, I have your green juice.

Anthony Godfrey:

I see the Godfrey's Grinchy Gulp they're blowing out of here.

Miranda:

It is a hit.

Codee Flores:

I’ve never seen as many drinks of the month ordered at one time like this. It’s crazy.

Chelsea Lopez:

Here, you can have this. OK, what is this one? Oh, drink of the month? Oh, this one's yours.

Anthony Godfrey:

This is mine.

Chelsea Lopez:

OK, well, now I'm feeling the pressure.

Anthony Godfrey:

All right, talk us through the steps as you make this gulp.

Chelsea Lopez:

All right, for Godfrey's Grinchy Gulp. So step one, grab the cup. Step two, fill it with ice. We actually have a student going to grab the ice right now. So they do kind of all the tasks that we need as we go so they actually are learning the job skills that they would need with coworkers at a soda shop. You know, hey, we need ice. We need to go get the ice. You know, and they're on standby for syrup refills, different kinds of things like that. So they're learning the interaction with coworkers, which is a really good skill to have.

Anthony Godfrey:

And you do this every Friday from 11 to 12 or 11 to 11:30? What's the schedule?

Chelsea Lopez:

We have it open every day until 11. So students in the school, teachers, whoever, visitors can come and put in tickets. And then when the students are in the classroom around 10:30, we check our orders. And then we make the drinks. The students go deliver all the drinks. The students in the school have the drinks to have during lunch.

Codee Flores:

Did you see the t-shirts?

Anthony Godfrey:

Oh, wow. I did not see the t-shirts. That is awesome. And in various colors.

Codee Flores:

All the students and teachers pick their own colors. We went shopping. So this is helping. This is not just for-- you know, this is so fun. This is a soda shop. It's to help the students learn skills. So they're learning money skills, customer service. We got to go shopping. We're always shopping for sodas. We got to find bargains because sodas literally-- It's through the roof.

Anthony Godfrey:

Yeah. Yeah. Wow. The shirts, the syrup display, the drink of the month, it is-- this is a great operation.

For those unfamiliar with South Valley School, tell us a little bit about what this is all about.

Tammy Rajczyk:

Great. South Valley School is a post-secondary school that's for transition services for students with disabilities, 18 to 22-year-olds. We focus on transitional skills, life skills, daily living skills, and especially job skills out in our communities.

Anthony Godfrey:

And it's really a unique program, just the wide variety of opportunities that you give students to get to have real-world learning and just to enhance their skills before they're no longer part of Jordan School District.

Tammy Rajczyk:

Right. It's an amazing experience. We have parents and students here from all over the Valley in the Jordan School District that they want to come back. They come back for our dances. We have alumni invited. It's an amazing experience. And a lot of our students leave here with paid jobs, which is our ultimate goal.

Anthony Godfrey:

You do an incredible job of providing those experiences for people, and they do feel a deep connection. Students and employees here.

Tammy Rajczyk:

Yes, they do. Our employees don't want to leave. I mean, it's amazing. I mean, every day is a gift. We get to watch our students blossom and grow and learn. And it really is-- I have tears in my eyes in many of days for just watching them. It's incredible.

Anthony Godfrey:

It's a place where incredible things happen. That's absolutely true. Thank you so much for inviting me over today, for the great experience you give these students, and for my wonderful Grinchy Gulp. I will be back. I'm a repeat customer. If there's a punch card, I'll be filling it out.

Tammy Rajczyk:

Thank you so much for coming. We really appreciate you taking the time to come and see South Valley and participate and be a part of this and it's our pleasure.

Anthony Godfrey:

Stay with us. When we come back, we try Godfrey's Grinchy Gulp.

Break:

Hello, I'm Sandy Riesgraf, Director of Communications for Jordan School District, and we want to invite you to connect with us. So many exciting things are happening in your child's school, your neighbor's school, in every school here, every day. Don't miss out on following the fun or simply staying informed when there's important information we need to share. Join us at jordandistrict.org, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram@jordandistrict. We can't wait to connect.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Chelsea Lopez:

We have our cup, we've got ice in there. Obviously, the clean-up is a bit of a job afterwards.

Anthony Godfrey:

Now, is there a sticker on there as well?

Chelsea Lopez:

Yeah, so the students put stickers on these. And then usually, we put the name and class number of the student who it goes to on these.

Anthony Godfrey:

Very cool.

Chelsea Lopez:

And recently, this year, we've just been bringing their tickets with. But the students really love to see the random sticker that they get. It's just kind of a little one of those things.

Anthony Godfrey:

And a decorated cup. That's-- yeah. Wow. All the details add up to a very cool experience.

Chelsea Lopez:

Right. So then, yeah, we add our syrup. So we do a pump of each. So we do a blue raspberry pump, a pump of pineapple. And then after that, we check the ticket to see if it's a regular or diet Mountain Dew.

Anthony Godfrey:

Oh, let's do a diet drink of the month. I should have written DDOTM.

Chelsea Lopez:

Oh, yeah. We'll do our diet on here. And then--

Anthony Godfrey:

I do love that sound of cracking open a new can, you know?

Chelsea Lopez:

Right.

Anthony Godfrey:

Oh, wow. OK, that's really cool.

Chelsea Lopez:

And kind of the purpose of the long spoon is the sugar all seems to the bottom. So we kind of pull it to the top, give it a twirl. And then--

Anthony Godfrey:

Did you go through various potential recipes before you landed on this particular Godfrey's Grinchy Gulp recipe?

Chelsea Lopez:

Yeah, so our students-- I mean, when we do anything like this, we kind of get our students together. And then we get all of their ideas. They put them up on the board. Like, sometimes we do it through an assignment. And then the rest of the class will-- they'll present their ideas. And the rest of the class will vote on their favorite combos. And so-- and a lot of the time, we will do samples. So we'll take the little cups.

Anthony Godfrey:

Yeah.

Chelsea Lopez:

We'll make little mini versions. And the students can try the different ones. And they kind of decide which one's their favorite.

Anthony Godfrey;

Very cool. What are some of the other drinks of the month over the time that you've had the shop open?

Chelsea Lopez:

We've done the-- there was a peep one. That one was crazy.

Codee Flores:

Oh, the peep. People like the peeps. So we have had the drink of the month that was a peep theme. It was Hanging with my Peeps. And so the students-- yeah. They came up with that. Like she was saying we kind of vote on different ideas. We did do drinks during one of our dances. And that was really cool. We got to go get some different syrups that we've never tried before. And they got to come up with combinations and things like that. So we always try to do some fun little things to go with it so people can enjoy their drinks and little trinkets and little Grinch necklaces. Things like that.

Anthony Godfrey:

Yeah, wow. Well, this is quite an operation with all of these different flavors. You’ve got classic caramel, lavender. Is lavender popular?

Codee Flores:

Lavender lemonade is my favorite.

Anthony Godfrey:

Lavender lemonade. Seeing all of these syrup flavors I definitely need to expand my horizons and try some different flavors.

Codee Flores:

I’ll give you a hint. Adding peppermint to anything is excellent.

Anthony Godfrey:

Really? Kind of a staple. Ok.

Codee Flores:

Yeah, it’s kind of my little secret thing over down there. I kinda–

Anthony Godfrey:

Oh, I see that it is tucked in the corner. All right, let’s see. Do you have brand preferences? This is DaVinci classic peppermint. It looks really refined.

Codee Flores:

You know, it looks really nice, right? I kind of like those ones because they’re plastic so we don’t drop them.

Anthony Godfrey:

Yeah, right. This is the moment of truth. Let’s try the Gulp.

Chelsea Lopez:

All right.

Anthony Godfrey;

All right, straw in.

Chelsea Lopez:

I’ve got to get a picture.

Anthony Godfrey:

Yeah, that’s right. Oh yeah, I need to put the necklace on. That tastes fantastic. I’m serious, that blue raspberry pineapple combination is really good. It’s good. You guys like it right?

Codee Flores:

Yeah, we sampled it. We had to come up with the –it was kinda like a science project. How do we make the drink green while tasting good at the same time? So we kinda- they were in here looking “Well, if we add this color and this color” and then we came up with the pineapple and the blue raspberry.

Anthony Godfrey:

I suspect there are lots of green drinks that do not taste good.

Codee Flores:

Some are a little sketchy. It’s kinda- some you think are going to be a good combination and you’re like this is just not going to happen.

Anthony Godfrey:

Well, you’ve hit on it because that really does taste great. It’s kind of got notes of melted popsicle with that blue raspberry in there.

Codee Flores:

I like that. I like that.

Anthony Godfrey:

Ok, after this is no longer drink of the month does it kind of become like secret menu?

Codee Flores:

Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:

So if I came in January, can I still order one of these?

Codee Flores:

Yes. This is the basic menu, right? Now that you’re a friend of the classroom, you know what’s back there. You can choose whatever you want.

Anthony Godfrey:

Talk me through the history of the pop shop a little bit, and why it got started, and how long it’s been going. It’s a great operation and I can see how much the kids love being part of it.

Codee Flores:

So my first year here at South Valley I saw other classrooms were doing – you know some were doing buttons that they make, some people do popcorn and it was a great way to have the students learning a business, learning how businesses work. And I was just thinking what can we do that people are going to enjoy? What can we do that’s going to involve every student doing what they need to do?

This was three years ago. I let the students come up with some ideas. We had some ideas like making dog treats or making bracelets, things like that. But then we were thinking, you know what? What could really benefit everybody? What’s something everybody likes? Everyone likes a treat. Everybody likes to customize their own things. And it’s nice to have stuff where you can involve everybody. So everyone got involved and everyone gets involved when we’re making new drinks or doing new flavors. The shopping for everything, counting the money, turning in the money at the end of the week, all of it. So everyone in this classroom has a job to do and they do it well and they’re doing great.

Anthony Godfrey:

I can tell how much it means to them and how engaged they are. This is a deep level of learning. Lots of skills involved and lots of fun involved.

Codee Flores:

Yeah, it’s a great time.

Anthony Godfrey:

Thank you to South Valley School for hosting us today and for creating such a wonderful, immersive experience for their students.

Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, education is the most important thing you’ll do today. We’ll see you out there.

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