Let’s face it, the Cardinal Cafe we have now is puny. Bitter coffee, stale desserts and not enough variety. I have a solution to this problem. Melissa ISD needs to invest in property that is close to the school and open up a genuine Cardinal Cafe.

Teenagers in this town need a place to gather and hang out.  After school, it would be incredible for students to have a place with free Wi-Fi where they can meet up to collaborate on homework. After sporting games at the school, teens could use a safe place to celebrate and hang out with friends. And on weekends, couples desire a sweet date spot to share coffee and a conversation. So in other words, the new Cardinal Cafe would always be busy! Just look at the new Palio’s Cafe for example. It is not even in a prime location and it always has tons of business.

I know what you’re thinking… Why does this matter to Melissa ISD? Well let me tell you. Melissa High School needs a business elective where students can learn about being an entrepreneur and running their own businesses. Then we can take what we learn and apply it out in the real world. If a business management class was added to the student’s choice of electives, then MISD could partner with that group of students to allow us to run the Cardinal Cafe. On weekends the Cafe could still be run by student volunteers looking for experience or even green cord hours. Learning the ins and outs of how a proper business functions could help prepare students for their future careers and give them an idea of whether or not they think they could own their own business one day.

So what exactly would the Cardinal Cafe look like? It needs to be a two story building. The first floor should contain a small bakery where warm, flaky, delectable desserts are sold. Everything from cake pops, to muffins, to yogurt parfaits, to cookies, to ice cream, to cakes. And as far as drinks go we would need a wide variety of piping hot and icy cold beverages. We could have smoothies, coffee, tea, flavored water, soda and milkshakes. All this food preparation would open the door for Melissa High School to also offer a culinary elective. With the recent start up of megalunch, there has been talk of the creation of a cooking club. These students, and many others would be more than thrilled to get involved in a true culinary class. The second floor of Cardinal Cafe needs to be more of a library type atmosphere. Dozens of tables, some big and some small, to accommodate the need for workspace for students. Along the walls there would be tons of outlets, perfect for the laptops of hard working students.

All right so let’s be real. The dreams of children are fantastic, but they often get squandered by the one harsh reality of the adult world. Money. So where will the money come from to get this all started? Our school can host several fundraisers to get the ball rolling for getting money started toward the Cardinal Cafe.

To wrap this up, if MISD were to invest in building a real Cardinal Cafe then it would be a phenomenal opportunity. Not only would the community benefit from this, but so would the school district and all the students. The Cardinal Cafe would be a seriously successful gathering spot that Melissa ISD should seriously consider!