Maverick Market (photo courtesy of the Grande Prairie Public School division)

By Liam Verster

Charles Spencer students launch Maverick Market

Charles Spencer’s ‘Maverick Market’ to support efforts to end cycle of poverty

Jun 8, 2021 | 1:52 PM

Students involved in the Maverick Movement club at the Charles Spencer High School have opened a coffee shop in the school to help people break free from the cycle of poverty.

The Maverick Movement is a social justice club, and the Maverick Market, which is located in the school, was established to provide students with the opportunity to gain work experience and extra credit, as well as support some programs to benefit those in need.

“One of [the initiatives] is our food program. We’ve been working really hard on having a program that doesn’t rely on donations, and the way that we’re able to do that then is by having the funds that we make in the market support the students that are on the food program and they’ll get to eat at the cafeteria like everyone else rather than having to have just granola bars or whatever that was donated,” says Shaylene Penner, the teacher leading the Maverick Movement club.

The club is also involved in work with local charity groups like food banks and women’s shelter. Once the costs of running the store and supporting the school’s food program is taken into account, any left over profits will be distributed to those sorts of charities.

The Maverick Market is essentially a coffee shop, as the club has partnered with Wapiti Bean Co., but there is also some retail items available.

“Right now we have our school flag for sale in there, we have our Maverick Movement clothing line which is all about charity effort,” said Penner. “We have reusable cups because we care about the environment. Then we also have a lot of community donated items, and we have what we’re calling the ‘Community Counter,’ which is the ability for local businesses to be featured in our store.”

“We have kids in our own store that have websites that sell clothes or we have a kid that sold honey out of his locker, so it just gives them an opportunity to build their business and learn all of those skills.”

The Market also follows the club’s core ideals of supporting local, promoting inclusiveness, and being sustainable.

“The ‘Community Counter’ piece that we’re having, local businesses can feature their items in our store, and they also donated a lot to help our store grow. Some of the proceeds potentially will go to support our community, so that’s a local piece.

“(The) inclusive [aspect] is that anyone can work in our store, and we’re hoping to have some of our special needs students and students-in-need that need work experience primarily in there, but any student, if you want to be a barista or whatever it is, you can work in our store.

“The sustainability piece is just that we have our environmentally friendly stuff in our store that we sell, we have a reusable cup initiative, we have recycle programs that we run through the store as well, and the fact that our store and all of the initiatives go around in a circle so they support each other, so they will be sustainable.”

Though the Maverick Market is led primarily by the students in the club, it also gives students in business classes an opportunity to work and get some real-life experience as well as extra credits.

However, there are some plans in the works to expand and create more ways to give back.

“A lot of the students that we’re hoping to have the opportunity to participate there are special needs students or students that need vocational programming, so that’s one of our big hopes there,” said Penner.

“We’re also toying with the idea for the food program to allow students to work there and earn their own money for their meal card, which kind of just empowers them and gives them ownership over their life instead of feeling like they’re getting a handout in any way.”

The Maverick Market is only open to the students and staff as of now, but plans are to have the store open for special occasions at the school next year like sporting events, concerts, and parent/teacher meetings.

Businesses have already made some donations for the ‘Community Counter’ program, and the Maverick Market is accepting applications from local businesses that wish to have their wares for sale at the store in the future.

Penner does say in order to be successful in their bid, the applicant and their products must align with the values of the Maverick Movement: local, sustainable and inclusive.