Fox Lane High School’s Blue Buzz Delivers

“I got this, Celia,” said Jack, a Fox Lane High School student, as he maneuvered a grocery cart through the aisles at ShopRite. The pair was working together to shop for groceries to be used in their class’s business, Blue Buzz. Some of their peers from Brigida Smythe’s class could be found throughout the store doing the same.

“Blue Buzz originally started as a coffee cart run by our students to help them develop work-based skills,” Fox Lane job coach Reema Katzenberger said. “When I became the job coach, I updated the program to make it a bit more modern and accessible. Now, every other Friday, high school staff members receive a Google Form where they can place their orders for items like quiche, coffee, pretzels and drinks. They have the option to pick up their items or have them delivered. It’s kind of like our own version of DoorDash.”

Keeping the business up and running is hard work and uses skills that are important in the workforce. Throughout the week, students collect and organize orders, grocery shop for supplies, calculate total spending and manage receipts, send reminder emails to staff who placed orders, decorate their delivery cart, bag orders and either make deliveries or wait at the register in their classroom for staff to pick up orders.

“It's been a great hands-on learning experience for them, and staff love it too,” Katzenberger said.

While grocery shopping, students gain important everyday experience.

“Look at the boards to see where things are,” Jack said.

“Is it going to be under ice cream or vegetables?” an aide asked a student who was looking for frozen diced peppers.

“Let’s see if we can find bacon on sale,” teaching assistant Toniann Licata said to another student. “That one was $6.99. Let’s look at these prices. Some of these are $5.79. Which do you think we should get?”

“Watch out, be careful. There are people around,” Celia said as Jack maneuvered their cart.

Back in the classroom on another day, students clocked in before doing some administrative work.

“Clocking in is important so your boss knows how much you worked and what to pay you,” Katzenberger said.

Staff members guided students through writing and sending emails to everyone who ordered and adding up receipts, so they knew how much they spent on supplies.

In another room, Ruby used her assistive device to tell her aide exactly where she wanted decorations to go on the delivery cart.

On delivery day, the classroom was bustling with activity. Students collected and bagged orders, organizing them by delivery time.

“They’re getting better every time,” teacher aide Averil Mathis said. “We are a well-oiled machine.”

When it came time for customers to get their goods, some of the class stayed behind to organize pick-up orders and hand them out, while others pushed the cart to make deliveries. Students and staff greeted them as they went by, and customers were very grateful to get their orders. Students distributed each purchase with a little something extra: pride in a job well done.