The Spirit Behind Oskaloosa’s Student-Run Café

February 6, 2025

By April Pearson

When Sarah DeRonde saw her special needs students struggling upon graduating high school, she came up with a fresh idea to help them — and the Oskaloosa community — flourish.

The Idea

“Our special today is a twist on a Cuban sandwich,” says Sarah DeRonde, manager of Spirit Café in Oskaloosa. “It’s ham, American salami, Swiss cheese, pickle and mayo, but we put it on a croissant. And then we press it on the grill, so it’s hot, flakey and delicious.” For DeRonde, creating fun and unique menu items is just one small part of her job. She’s also a passionate teacher who opened Spirit Café last May to provide authentic work experience for students.
 
“I’ve been a special needs teacher for many years,” she says. “We thought we were preparing our students for life out in the community, but we found that they were floundering after leaving high school.” When she realized that most of the jobs in town were in food service and janitorial work, she decided to pursue a project that would benefit both the community and aspiring young professionals. “So we developed our cafe.”

 

The Support

Wanting to open a café and actually opening a café are two different things. DeRonde needed buy-in from the school administration and support from the community. First, she talked to the special education director, who loved the idea. Then she ran it by the principal, who also loved it. “Finally,” she says, “we pitched it to our superintendent, who said, ‘I don't think it’s if we do it, I think it's when.’ From that point forward, it was a matter of funding.”
 
Spirit Café is technically under the umbrella of the school, but it’s been funded almost entirely by the community. “I met with our first donor about two weeks after we decided to do this, and she gave us a considerable amount of money,” says DeRonde. “Business owners want to contribute because we’re training kids to be successful. Our community has really supported us.”

 

The Space

Spirit Café is located in an old restaurant near City Square Park. “We toured a few places and landed on this one because it had the setup and equipment we needed,” says DeRonde. “It was so dark and dingy here, but we thought we could fix it. I hate to say it, but it was way worse than we thought.”
 
While they hired out some work, like the bathroom installation, DeRonde and her students gutted, cleaned and designed the space. “We kept some of the original stuff, but the kids helped tear down walls and scrub everything from head to toe.”
 
It was truly a collaborative effort — even the school’s art students got involved, choosing the wallpaper, paint colors, light fixtures and more. They also created the logo and custom art pieces for the café. “I loved that. Seeing them grow into their creativity and entrepreneurial skills was a lot of fun. And we genuinely like what they came up with.” 

The Food

DeRonde loves to cook, so she created a fresh, simple, delicious menu to help students develop their food service skills. “It's really important for us to have very fresh food,” she says. “We slice our meat and cheese; we use fresh fruits and vegetables grown locally. The kids make all of our soups and salads from scratch. It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it. People really enjoy our food.”
 
She’s always looking for opportunities to incorporate even more fresh, local ingredients. A few generous teachers grew tomatoes and peppers for the café in their garden last summer, but DeRonde says, “It would be great if some smaller, local farms would partner with us. I'm thinking of local eggs or meat providers. That would be wonderful.”

 

The Upshot

The restaurant employs students with a wide variety of abilities. Students roll silverware, operate the grill and run the front of the house. They’re trained in everything from food safety to proper work attire, and their expertise will translate into future professions.
 
DeRonde says, “We want to help them attain and keep jobs, so we don't just work on kitchen and janitorial skills. It goes so much further. Most of the students, including our regular education students, learn how to log in for work every day and how to show up on time — basic work skills that maybe were lacking before coming here.”
 
Kids start coming in at 7:00 a.m. to prep for breakfast, then they go to school, and the next shift comes in to serve breakfast and prep for lunch, and so on, throughout the day. Open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., the restaurant provides work experience credits during school hours and above minimum wage outside of school hours.
 
The work experience and earning potential have helped DeRonde’s students discover talents, grow confidence and gain independence. She says, “We placed one of our students at the cash register, but she was nervous because she didn’t want to talk to people. Now, she is probably the most social kid I've ever met. She just totally broke out of her shell. It's been pretty cool.”

 

The Surprise

With its excellent service, quality food and admirable mission, is it surprising that Spirit Café has become a smashing success? It is to DeRonde. “We’re just this little café that was hoping to scrape by, but we’re swamped! And that’s a good thing.”