II. What: a possible solution A. The idea The idea is to provide a “social coffee place” to create a learning and sharing community. The business will be divided into three interdependent sections. 1. The workshop Workshop lessons in cooking, baking, gardening, crafting, sewing, art, and poetry will take place in one room. The classes’ teachers will be elderly people willing to volunteer. Class attendance will be via monthly subscriptions paid by people wanting to attend a few classes a week as well as schools paying for some of their students to join classes. Part of the food used to cook will come from the garden, and the rest will be bought from local producers. Intergenerational knowledge sharing will mostly occur during these workshops. 2. The coffee shop Another part of the business will be the coffee shop. In this room, part of what has been cooked during the lessons will be sold. The waiters will be full-time paid employees, and the drinks (e.g., fresh juice or smoothies) will be made from products bought from local partners or grown in the garden. Every evening, the coffee shop will be open for a night event (displayed on the schedule). This area will also be important for intergenerational exchanges. 3. The thrift store The last section of the business will be a thrift store where donated clothes or fashion accessories will be sold after being sorted by volunteers and repaired in the sewing and crafting workshop. People will donate clothes they no longer use, to have more space at home, feel less guilty about buying new clothes or simply give to a fair cause. In exchange, they will receive a voucher for a free coffee and a piece of cake in the coffee shop. The salespeople will be volunteers. Below a possible schedule for a week is presented. Each week, the schedule will change, according to the volunteers’ availability. Likewise, the menu will vary depending on the season and the different workshops. 109
110 Online Touch Home