On Sept. 18, the Northern Lights Cafe opened up for the year with new changes to the service and products due to food safety laws in schools and construction at North High.
“We are changing from making lemonade and that type of stuff to having all prepackaged stuff,” said business teacher Russell Vincent, who sponsors the Northern Lights Cafe.
They also will no longer serve food except for cookies baked here at Parkway, and are starting to serve drinks like Coke Zero and Dr. Pepper.
A big reason that this year the cafe is delivery only is due to construction in the school.
“It is going to be a delivery service this time since the lounge is being used for construction right now, so we can’t access that. We’re rebranding it to be a cart cafe,” said DECA President Max Peck.
Though this is a big change in how it has worked in previous years, it would not be the first time the Northern Lights Cafe has had a major service change. When the cafe first opened, it was in the library, they did not serve food, and it only happened during lunch.
Due to these changes, instead of only using DECA members, there is also a need for new workers to help out at the cafe.
“We will hire some students to work if they want to, so if there are students who are willing or don’t have anything else to do their academic lab, we will do that,” said Vincent. “We are also going to work with Mr. Preston’s students; they are also gonna help out.”
The cafe is not just a program for students to get drinks though, it is also a great program for students to gain experience about being in a business.
“That is what the Marketing Two and DECA students are doing. They are trying to learn how to market, get the distribution, find a way to get it to the students quickly,” Vincent said. “They have to do the ordering and find the product. They work on all the pricing and are basically running a small business.”
![Senior Maxwell Banashek, energetically recites his poem for the poetry slam audience. “Usually I am more of a keep [poetry] private kind of guy because I’m waiting for the right time and place… poetry slams are the kind of nice, safe place for me to perform my poems.”](https://pnhnorsestar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/m3-1-1-e1729098257151-800x1200.jpg)
