Coffee/sandwich, imprinting shop in the works
Robbinsville – Graham County Schools has received a $511,500 Golden LEAF Foundation grant that will be used to start a downtown coffee/sandwich shop and imprinting shop to teach Robbinsville High School students real-world workforce skills.
Money will go to renovate and restore the former Veterans of Foreign Wars building off North Main Street. Planners hope to have the business open by summer 2023.
The project – which has been in the planning stages for several years – is a collaboration between Graham County Schools, GREAT (Graham Revitalization Economic Action Team), Graham County (which backed the grant application), and Robbinsville (which owns the building and leases it to GREAT).
It will also be a collaboration between numerous programs at Robbinsville High School, said Superintendent Angie Knight.
It will be a workforce training project involving students from Occupational Course of Study who will staff the business, entrepreneur students who will do market research, business students who will provide a finance and business plan, culinary arts students who will develop the menu, carpentry students who will renovate the building, and students in the imprinting shop who will provide services and merchandise.
The building is structurally sound but is a work in progress, Knight said. It already has new windows, a new roof, handicapped access, and other repairs and upgrades. The interior will be the next project.
Knight is hoping to have the business open by summer 2023 or earlier.
Once in operation, the business will be staffed by students as a class during school hours, and employ students after school and weekends.
“I think that’s a pretty awesome model,” Knight told The Graham Star on Tuesday morning.
Longer term, Knight envisions a pavilion next to the building that would provide space for vendors as well as a public restroom for downtown community events.
She said the facility could be an economic boost for downtown Robbinsville.