At The Phoenix Center in Nutley, students in its Brew Crew prepare iced coffee for staff as part of a vocational learning activity. News 12 reported Oct. 7 that a session takes about an hour and that the group now meets twice a week, up from once weekly last school year. The report said the idea began after one student showed an interest in iced coffee. The Center describes Brew Crew as a student-led program.
Speech and occupational therapists co-lead the activity, according to the Center. Staff members around the school place orders, and students have roles in collecting those requests and completing the work. News 12 described a campus route that asks students to move through school hallways, approach adults in their rooms and respond to questions about what they want. That means the activity includes direct interaction with the people who will receive the drinks, not just practice at a workstation.
The Center says the forms are customized, color-coded and supported with pictures. At the workstation, students can use the images to identify ingredients and follow the details of each request. News 12 said the visual supports are meant to help them complete orders with as much independence as possible. They also make information concrete: a written request is paired with a picture cue that students can check while working.
News 12 reported that staff try to step back as students become more comfortable, while remaining available to help. The article describes the adults allowing students room to carry out assigned work rather than taking over the routine. That distinction matters in a program whose stated purpose is practice: support remains part of the setting, but students are given time to handle their own roles.
Students also help track inventory and enter information into an Excel spreadsheet, News 12 reported. That record-keeping sits alongside the customer-facing work and gives the crew another responsibility connected to the service. Keeping track of supplies asks students to notice what is on hand and record it, extending the activity beyond making a beverage.
News 12 also says the drinks are sold to staff, not simply made as a classroom demonstration. That gives the activity a real audience and provides context for one of the Center’s stated learning aims, money concepts. The report does not describe prices, payment methods or how sales are handled, so this account does not assume those details.
The Phoenix Center lists communication, teamwork, sequencing, money concepts, problem-solving and vocational readiness among Brew Crew’s learning aims. Those are the Center’s stated goals, not measured results. News 12 did not report assessment scores, wages, outside job placements or employment outcomes for participants, so the story cannot show whether the program changed those measures. It documents the tasks and structure the Center uses to provide practice.
The schedule has changed over time. News 12 reported that Brew Crew met once a week last school year and now meets twice weekly. The Center’s own post about a NorthJersey.com photo visit calls it a weekly program, so this article attributes the current twice-weekly schedule to News 12. The Center says photographer Michael Karas visited around National Coffee Day, Sept. 29, but does not specify the exact date.
The Center’s transition-services page provides broader context: it says transition planning begins at age 14 and lists supported employment and community-based instruction among its services. That information describes the institution’s broader program, not the ages or outcomes of Brew Crew students. The report does not say that the coffee activity is itself an off-campus job or that participants are paid.
News 12 framed the wider purpose as helping students practice workplace and social skills in a familiar, supported setting, with skills they may use in future jobs and community life. Brew Crew offers one recurring way to work toward that aim. Each session has a clear service request, a team structure and a result for a staff member who ordered coffee. The sources support that practical account without claiming the activity guarantees future employment or produces a measured gain.
Reader responses