The Growth of Red Raider Restaurant

The Red Raider Restaurant reopened today for our 5th season!  The hustle and bustle of the event is always overshadowed by the positive growth shown by each student.  Students took on new roles today including taking orders (aka speaking to others) for the first time.  Although this task seems small, for the students we featured as servers today, they exceeded our expectations and shined.  One student used her communication device to string requests together to give and receive communication.  Another student has grown so much because of the restaurant.  In his first attempt two years ago, he was having trouble even standing on the tile floor in the kitchen by the guests.  He kicked and screamed when we asked him to complete a task.  Today, he was taking orders, bringing food, taking away plates, and talking with the guests.  Our 6th grader could not wait for today because she was finally able to work in "our" restaurant.  All of these positives happen because of the connection the restaurant has in their day.  Today, we gladly served 29 guests spaghetti, meaty meatballs, side salads and mini cherry cheesecakes.  The RRR would not be successful if it weren't for the middle school family and our facilities.  We used tomatoes and peppers from the garden to make our homemade sauce.  And, if it weren't for our guests, our teachers and administrators, we would not have the captive audience.  We maybe serving you food, but your presence is serving the students as they learn how to live, work, and interact.  We closed the restaurant today and read our News-2-You newspaper.  The topic today was the new movie "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs".  The students giggled as we just made 8 pounds of meatballs, 4 boxes of noodles, and 12 pounds of tomato sauce.....just like the movies!

Guest Blogger: Sarah Morgan