Eli & the Golden Hug Muffin: Focus Beyond Student Creates New School Menu Item

If you can dream it, you can achieve it. No one knows this better than Eli, a student at Focus Beyond Transition Services whose entrepreneurial spirit and passion for baking inspired a new menu item that will be served in every Saint Paul Public Schools cafeteria starting in fall 2025.

The story begins with Eli’s grandma, Shirley, and her family recipe for apple cake. Fresh apples, cinnamon, nutmeg and brown sugar are the primary flavors in this family favorite dessert. Eli, who works at the Lighthouse Coffee Cart at 360 Colborne, approached his job coach Mei Roen about baking and selling muffins at the coffee cart. Janelle Kelly, a work-based learning coordinator at Focus Beyond, brought the idea to SPPS’s head chef Bono Gbolo, who happily agreed to meet with Eli and talk “chef to chef.”

Chef Bono and Eli met at Focus Beyond to talk about several of Eli's family recipes and what they mean to him and his family. Together they agreed on a recipe that would be most adaptable to mass production for school meals. Chef Bono explained what’s involved in "scaling up" a recipe, and then invited Eli to be part of the process at the district’s central kitchen. There, he got to see how the muffins are made and taste tested two versions of his grandma’s recipe, ranking them by taste, texture, aroma and appearance.

After selecting the winning recipe, the Nutrition Services central kitchen team put it into production while Eli came up with a name for the muffin and designed a logo to put on the packaging. On May 22, Eli and his classmates at Focus Beyond and students at Bridge View School were the first to taste what thousands of students across the district will soon know as the Golden Hug Muffin. 

Eli wants to encourage others to share their recipes and is interested in working in a bakery or restaurant himself. This summer, he will move out of his parents’ house and into an apartment above their garage with a roommate. Congratulations to Eli and all of the staff at Focus Beyond and Nutrition Services who supported his dream!