SunRidge Middle Snack Shack provides opportunities for inclusion

When the to-go window opens near the front office on Fridays, teachers line up to order lunch or perhaps chips or candy at SunRidge Middle School’s Snack Shack. What makes this snack bar different is it’s run completely by students with special needs, with the help of student peers.

Melissa Breaud is the behavior specialist at SunRidge, and she’s thrilled with how it’s going.

“This is showing that there are possibilities,” she said. “In the world of ESE, we’ve gone into this model of ‘They’re going to do greeters’ or ‘They’re going to be just somebody who participates in life.’ But this shows there are possibilities. …  They can be active participants in the world.”

The parents of students in the VIP Program love what the Snack Shack has done for their children.

“It’s truly amazing what they are doing there for the kids and the inclusion in the school,” said Cricket Whitman, whose daughter, Sydney, is in the program. “Mrs. Breaud is a God send! Sydney has grown leaps and bounds in the last two years here. We are sad it's our last year with this amazing team.”

The snack snack operates weekly and, this year, added a lunch option.

Breaud leads 38 VIP students plus 31 eighth-grade peers who support the students. All work in shifts, and not everyone sells at the window; some will keep a shopping list, take inventory, stock shelves or deliver to classrooms.

“It’s based on their personal, unique abilities,” she said. “We’re trying to do what is successful for them.”

The “workers” wear a uniform, apron and gloves and have everything they need to perform their jobs. They have to figure out how much money is in the till and make change. At the end of their shifts, they close down, clean the room, take end-of-the-day inventory and count the money for the deposit.

“They love to see people, they love the customer service,” Breaud said. “They love the welcoming and the camaraderie … seeing people who are in their independent world. It’s a big campus, lots of kids, now everyone knows our students. … There’s a community now.”

When the peers step in, Breaud steps back to let the students work together.

“Students don’t always need adults,” she said. “They don’t want help; they want to do it themselves. They own it. They stand taller.”

Two of the 31 peer assistants are Molly Krug and Zach Altpeter, who support the VIP Program as a daily elective class.

“I love serving as a peer because I like to help people who sometimes can’t help themselves,” Zach said. “It helps with compassion skills, and it gives you friends because they love to see you every day. They light up when they see you.”

“They just brighten my entire day,” Molly said. “I love being with the kids because they just need someone their age to be friends with … and not an adult.”

Molly and Zach like Tuesdays and Thursdays when the peers go to the student drop-off area and walk the VIPs to their classroom.

The peers receive volunteer hours for National Honor Society, but that’s not why Zach does it.

“Honestly, I enjoy it,” he said. “I don’t see it as a volunteer thing. I see it as hanging out with my friends.”

“Having the peers there, it allows others to come in for friendship,” Breaud said. “This allows for organic friendship. And they have names now; they aren’t the self-contained students. They have a name.”

The Snack Shack is such a unique opportunity for our special kiddos to learn so many skills,” Whitman said. “I was amazed the first time I saw my daughter working and what all she could do! I was shocked watching her take the order, fill it and even make change. … Watching the peers teach, love, support and cheer them on will melt anyone’s heart. This generation truly is unique in their ability to accept others, no matter how different, and forge lifelong friendships.”

“It’s become this living organism; it’s taken a life of its own,” teacher Trey Daniels said.

When the students are working in the Snack Shack, they are learning other everyday skills in the Independent Functioning Lab.