Students going to the gym for the first time since getting back from winter break will notice an addition to the facility’s offerings in the form of a smoothie stand.
Hop and Shake, the smoothie and protein shake enterprise, is the product of an idea first conceived of by recent graduate Joe Loren and junior Kyle Fischer in the fall semester of last year.
Since its conception, the idea has undergone a rigorous review by a variety of panels and officials, and the business will soon open in the Ralph S. O’Connor Recreation Center as a project of Hopkins Student Enterprises (HSE).
Located in between the vending machines and the restrooms on the lower level of the recreation center, the smoothie stand hopes to provide gym-goers with refreshing drinks at reasonable prices.
Bringing their idea to fruition was a lengthy process; it has been over a year since Loren and Fischer submitted their business plan to HSE.
“It was not until early June 2013 that I was notified that HSE, Hopkins, the Rec Center and an external advisory board had approved our venture,” Fischer, who now holds the title of manager, wrote in an email to The News-Letter.
Ian Han, the CEO of HSE, was assigned as Hop and Shake’s advisor. Han explained that since the plan was approved just before the summer, the process was delayed even further until the resumption of the academic year.
“Over the summertime, not everyone is here. The HSE president stepped up and really wanted to push this venture along, but again, because all the management team is not here to do all the steps, we had to wait until everybody was settled back on campus,” Pamela Arrington, an HSE administrative advisor, said.
Specifically, the Hop and Shake team needed to wait until various officials and panels — those tasked with awarding final approval for HSE business plans — returned to campus. “We have the dean of student life, we have director of purchasing, director of the tax office, legal counsel review, risk management review. Based on the nature of Hop and Shake, it also had to get approval from the Rec center and also from Housing and Dining,” Arrington said.
The summer was not put to waste, however. Over the break, Loren contracted sophomore Dexter Zimet for the position of head chef. Zimet, whose parents are both in the food service business, was put in charge of creating the recipes for the shakes and conducting focus group testing on his products.
“We had 15 people come in and taste our samples, and we made modifications based on their assessments,” Zimet said.
Furthermore, Zimet, along with the rest of the management team, had to choose from where to source the ingredients.
“Many students simply say ‘I’m just going to call this company and have a product delivered,’ but that’s not establishing a supply chain. You have to reach out and set them up as a vendor, and as a continuous supplier,” Arrington said.
So, Zimet had to sample various vendors in an effort to identify the venture’s regular suppliers.
“I tried out a couple of different places. Based on their delivery situations and what they had in stock and price, I decided to primarily use Bon Appetit, although we use some other smaller vendors also,” Zimet said.
After an arduous process, the management of Hop and Shake has established its menu. The list of smoothie and protein shake items can currently be found on the business’s website, which was designed by freshman Noah Presler and Han.
“I highly recommend the D-Level smoothie; it’s almost as good as the challenge,” Student Liaison for Hop and Shake Cole Gennrich wrote in an email to The News-Letter.
Zimet concurs, but also enjoys the Breezeway shake.
Aside from the multiple layers of approval within Hopkins, a food-related enterprise also has to deal with city health regulations.
“One of the most difficult aspects of getting Hop and Shake off the ground was receiving appropriate inspections and certificates by the City of Baltimore Health Department and other organizations,” Fischer wrote.
This part of the approval process has proven to be a significantly time-consuming, Arrington explained.
“We had to do Food Certification classes. . .and we are still waiting for the final stage of this, which is the Baltimore City Health Inspection,” Arrington said.
Despite the numerous potential limitations around setting up campus businesses, HSE services seek to provide an opportunity for students to gain assistance in overcoming them.
“We give them control, but also oversight,” Arrington said.
In this way, students are able to create their own enterprises, with guidance from Hopkins when they encounter legal or other issues.
After it begins operating, the Hop and Shake stand will by no means have its business hours, prices and models set in stone, and it will be the job of Gennrich as student liaison to mediate between customers and staff and to fix issues that arise. Ultimately, the role of remaining flexible to the demands of Homewood Campus customers falls upon the Hop and Shake staff.
Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The News-Letter.