The Grade 7 English class at Sacred Heart School/脡cole Sacr茅Coeur has been learning about the importance of entrepreneurship.
Students will use a 3D printer to create miniature food trucks as part of the program, and they will come up with a menu with food items on it. At the end of the unit, they will invite their fellow students and parents to come to their class, so that people can place an order from the menu, although they won鈥檛 be making things to order.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e really into it, and they鈥檙e having a lot of fun,鈥� said Megan Vanstone, the Grade 7 English teacher at Sacred Heart.
Students have received their food safety certification, and they have spent time learning about food preparation at the Estevan Comprehensive School. They will go grocery shopping in a couple of weeks so that they know the cost of the food they are serving, and accountants from MNP will come in to mentor the students and build a pricing model.
Once it鈥檚 all finished, the students will be able to calculate how much money they would have made had they actually been selling food, which is a big part of the project, Vanstone said.
As part of the program, students have taken on the different roles associated with a successful business, ranging from marketing to budgeting to menu planning.
鈥淲e started in the middle of September, and we鈥檒l be done in about three weeks,鈥� Vanstone told Lifestyles.
The day of the food truck festival, they might have some sample-sized portions of the food for people to try.
鈥淭hey鈥檒l have a big display board with their menu and their marketing strategy that will be on there, along with their little truck, and they鈥檒l be able to explain their business to everybody that pops in.鈥�
Students also talked to local restaurants, and three of them 鈥� Boston Pizza, Eddie Webster鈥檚 and Black Beard鈥檚 Family Restaurant 鈥� sent in some samples of their food. The students savoured the dishes and will write online reviews for them.
The Rolling Stove food truck company has offered to bring its truck for the children to tour, so they can see what would be included if they had an actual food truck.
Vanstone noted that Josh LeBlanc, the instructor of the entrepreneurship 30 class at the Estevan Comprehensive School, has been a big role model for her, because of the success of his program. She believes it鈥檚 important for students to learn some of the skills associated with owning a business at an early age.
鈥淚 think the part that I鈥檝e been most impressed with is how even in the down market in Estevan, how local businesses have stepped up to help us and to encourage the kids and show them that there鈥檚 so much life here left in Estevan in our local businesses,鈥� she said. 鈥淚鈥檝e just been so impressed and I鈥檓 so touched with the way we鈥檝e been supported in the community with the different mentors and experts that we鈥檝e reached out to.鈥澛�
