With something as simple as serving ice cream, Kimball Elementary students have donated money to the Red Cross, the Friends of the Library and the food shelf. The business venture has also given funds to the KES student government, the media center and has helped purchase playground equipment. The operation is called “Flavors on Friday,” and is run by students in the Intermediate Multi-Age Classroom (IMAC). “The program teaches students the responsibility of a job,” teacher Laurie Gustafson said. “They learn so much – the stress of a job, how to handle money and why you can’t spend the money frivolously.” Each student has his or her own responsibility in the business. Some of the jobs include prep crews, scoopers, checkers, cone distributors, and clean-up crews. Every Friday before lunch, IMAC students are busy at work. The prep crew wheels out the ice cream cart and puts the ice cream buckets in their place. Student Michael Helgerson really enjoys setting up the business. “I like to get the ice cream and clean the cart,” Helgerson said. Once the prep work is done, the cart is placed in the cafeteria section of the gym and students can purchase ice cream for 50 cents during their lunch periods. “I get to count out 50 cents from everyone,” Michael’s sister, Kate said. Customers line up in front of the cashier. Each week, Flavors on Friday offers three types of ice cream, which the cashiers read off. “Blueberry Cheesecake, Blue Moon or Grandma’s Apple Pie,” Katie Oster asks her peer customers. Each choice is tallied so students know which flavors are popular and eaten the most. This helps students choose flavors for subsequent weeks. “The students order the ice cream and choose the flavors,” Gustafson said. “The students surveyed the school to find the favorite flavors.” After the customers pay, they line up before being served. The cones person hands a cone to the scooper. Then the cones are filled with one or two scoops. “You learn how to measure,” Kirk Pramann said. “Like one-and-a-half scoops. You learn how much to give to a person.” Half-way through the lunch period, the second-shift comes on board. The students rotate lunch times with when they work. “We have two shifts of workers so each student has a job every Friday,” Gustafson said. Besides the Friday work shifts, students also advertise their business in the school. They color posters and make announcements over the school’s PA system. “It’s fun and hard at the same time,” student Alison Rippentrop said about her work. After the work day, the clean-up crew puts away the ice cream and cleans off lunch tables that may have ice cream spills. The students are also responsible for counting all of the money they collected. Half-way through the school year, Gustafson’s IMAC class switches off with Patti Bauerly’s class in the operation. This allows both classes to learn responsibilities that go along with running a business. Just as in the real community, business members are known by the general public and interact with their peers through the business. Marnie Macgregor is a Flavors on Friday veteran. She has worked in the business for three years. “My favorite part of doing ice cream is getting to see all of the other kids.” The business also teaches students real world work experience. Gustafson said, “Students learn the responsibility of a job. Sometimes they don’t want to work, but this is their job. It really is hands-on learning.” Flavors on Friday originally started six years ago with funds provided by the Central Minnesota Initiative Foundation. Last year, the grant ran out and Flavors on Friday became self-sufficient, however prices had to be raised from 25 cents to 50 cents. Gustafson said, “The other teachers, principals and students said it is such a great thing, we need to keep it going as long as we can.”
