Positively Mississippi: the place in the center

BRANDON, Miss. (WLBT) – Located in the heart of Brandon, Mississippi sits a beautiful home that now serves its community as a vibrant coffee shop.

“I can say with all my heart that people love this place and it just works because of the support we have from the district, the community and the students.”

Summer Lewis is a teacher and operator of The Spot Downtown. The Spot not only serves as a place to enjoy great drinks and pastries, but it also serves as a learning center for some of the county’s most special students.

“Our employees are students in the Rankin County School District’s Aspire transition program. They come from all over the district and are here to learn different job skills. They enter and everyone has been assigned roles. (It’s) an unpaid internship here, and they have different roles, (like) customer service, employee, inventory. Clerk, my store clerk, these are skills that we work on with them to transfer to real-life job skills.”

As soon as you walk in, you will be greeted with big smiles and excitement as you stop by the gift shop with unique items created by the seniors in the program. Just like at your local restaurant, students, with the help of their teachers, will take your order and help create some of the best items your taste buds will love.

“We have homemade cake, lemon cakes. “We just added a new apple crumble pie and it gives our students the opportunity to engage in some culinary skills that can transfer to other areas of work.”

The program helps students learn basic skills that can be applied to any job. From hospitality, with order taking and serving, to check out and take away service. Students also help the Brandon Garden Club plant their own vegetables, which are located right outside the store next to the greenhouse.

While visiting The Spot, we had the opportunity to meet Nick, the customer service employee who has been with the program for two years.

“Nick is amazing. Of course, they all are, but Nick was very quiet when you started. This is the second year for him. The first day she came here for this school year, she got off the bus and outside was a group of women, our clients. We have outdoor seating. He immediately got off the bus and greeted them, something he wouldn’t have done the year before, but he walked up to them and then came to me and said, “I’m the customer service employee, so those are my customers.” .’ I didn’t have to tell him. He knew what his job was. He knew his role and took the order. I more or less stayed back and watched him. The year before I was teaching him and now he is more or less teaching the new students. “That’s really exciting.”

The Aspire transition program has been very successful over the years, and students have landed jobs at local businesses such as Jerry’s Fish House in Florence and Bob Hoyte Honda, promoting the importance of education in the community.

“It’s amazing to see where they start and where they end, and when they leave here, they are just bright, brilliant leaders for our place, and they want to welcome people and give them tours and welcome them, and that’s what we’re very excited. Watch them grow in many ways.”

The Spot Downtown is located at 233 Tamberline St. in Brandon. Its opening hours are from 8 am to 2 pm, Monday to Friday.

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