On a Wednesday morning in March, students in the culinary arts program at Doña Ana Community College mixed, scooped and baked dozens of cookies, muffins and whoopie pies in a kitchen laboratory on DACC’s East Mesa campus.
By that afternoon, the cooled and packaged baked goods were en route to New Mexico State University’s Las Cruces campus. Their destination? The Sam Steel Café in the heart of Gerald Thomas Hall – home of NMSU’s College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences.
The student-baked sweets are part of a broad rebranding of the student-operated café – and represent a blossoming collaboration between DACC’s culinary arts program and NMSU’s Department of Family and Consumer Sciences
“We want to create a collaborative space in Gerald Thomas Hall for faculty, students, staff and community members,” said Kelley Coffeen, associate professor in the Fashion Merchandising and Design program who now oversees the café operations with a team from Family and Consumer Sciences. “We’re excited to introduce new food and beverage options that attract people from across campus and keep the café student-driven.”
Coffeen’s plans include ramping up the café’s retail offerings over the upcoming months. Her goal is to turn the café into a one-stop shop for coffee, pastries and gifts. But her team’s first order of business was simplifying the menu, reducing prices and introducing a daily special – a 12-ounce cup of coffee for 99 cents – that instantly drew customers.
“A lot of people just want a cup of coffee, nothing fancy,” she said, “and they can get that here for under $1.”
Coffeen’s team also decided to add pastries to the mix. For that, she turned to DACC’s culinary arts program and chef-instructors Tom Drake and Cecilia Castro, who enlisted their students to handcraft an assortment of baked goods for the café. The students spent most of March working with Coffeen to zero in on items that appealed to customers. Thus far, muffins in a plethora of flavors – think banana, chocolate chip, blueberry and cranberry – are top sellers, followed by cookies. Most of the confections are priced under $3.
The partnership doubles as a fundraising effort for the DACC students, who bake for the café on their own time as part of a student organization called the Chop Club, which raises money to travel to a culinary destination each year. It also fosters community among students and gives them extra time to sharpen their baking skills.
“These students are taking what they learned in my classes and making things on a large production scale for an actual customer,” Castro said. “They have the creative freedom to experiment with flavors, but whatever they bake must maintain a certain level of quality.”
As president of the Chop Club, DACC student Luci Serna leads the baking crew. On a recent baking day, Serna described the atmosphere in DACC’s restaurant-grade kitchen as “fun” and “relaxing.”
“It was more about spending time and learning together,” Serna said, adding, “Some students weren’t ready to pipe, but those of us who knew helped them. So, it’s definitely a learning experience, but it’s also fun to bake with your friends.”
The café itself also provides a unique learning environment where students can experience the food industry. It currently employs six students, including two work-study managers. In addition to earning money, student workers gain skills in customer service, efficiency, professionalism and organizational structure. They also closely collaborate with NMSU’s Food Science and Technology program to support sales of student-produced products.
“This is a great experience for the students to develop an understanding of the demands, responsibilities and opportunities of professional employment,” said Efren Delgado, head of the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences. “We are grateful to Dr. Kelly Coffeen for running the café and the great opportunity she gives our students to apply principles and techniques learned in the classroom to real-life problem-solving situations.”
This fall, Coffeen will introduce a curated gift section in the café. She plans to have students from her upper-division fashion-buying class select items to sell, providing additional opportunities for hands-on learning.
“Together, our vision is to create a shop where we sell coffees and treats, but customers can also pick up inexpensive gifts uniquely tailored to the College of ACES,” Coffeen said.
The Sam Steel Café is open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Thursday.
For more information about the DACC culinary arts program, visit https://dacc.nmsu.edu/academics/programs/culinary-arts/index.html.
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Cutline 1: Lizzy Gallegos, a culinary arts student at Doña Ana Community College, scoops batter into muffin tins. Gallegos is part of a student group at DACC that bakes pastries for the Sam Steel Café on New Mexico State University’s Las Cruces campus. (NMSU photo by Josh Bachman)
Cutline 2: Colleen Caldwell and other culinary art students at Doña Ana Community College prepare various baked goods in the DACC’s kitchen laboratory for the Sam Steel Café. (NMSU photo by Josh Bachman)
Cutline 3: Cassandra Marrufo, a culinary arts student at Doña Ana Community College, pipes chocolate batter for whoopie pies onto a sheet pan for the Sam Steel Café at New Mexico State University. (NMSU photo by Josh Bachman)
Cutline 4: Jimena Loya, a barista at New Mexico State University’s Sam Steel Café, displays whoopie pies made by culinary arts students at Doña Ana Community College. (NMSU photo by Josh Bachman)