Emily Willardson is a multigenerational bread baker who turned her natural entrepreneurial skills into culinary business lessons for her students. She utilized a project-based learning model when teaching middle school students how to create and run a food truck business and high school students how to operate a catering business. Along the way, she learned the successes and pitfalls that naturally come each year with different cohorts of students and how to change the model for her students’ success as well as her own. In this two-part series, Emily will share her experiences and knowledge in embedding an entrepreneurial spirit in culinary students.

Emily explains how her background as a start-up business owner helped mold her students’ business acumen in the first installment. From an at-home bread baker to inspiring seventh grade food truck business owners, Emily instills business know-how in her young culinarians.

Food truck project drives home business skills for middle school students.
By Emily Willardson, FCS Teacher at Wasatch High School

I am a multigenerational bread maker and when my kids were little, I applied for a cottage license and sold bread from my home. During the 2019-2020 school year, I began teaching middle school students. (An epic year to return to teaching!) I talked about my personal bread baking business and that inspired a few of my students to create their own cookie, cupcake and bread cottage business. Right away in my teaching career, I began instilling an entrepreneurial spirit in my students.

My next business and culinary project took shape when I teamed up with teachers who taught business and technology. We used the idea of a food truck and created a year-long project for all seventh graders to teach them about building a business plan complete with a logo and selling food to customers.  

Students rotated through the three classes - business, technology and family and consumer science. In groups of four, students created their food truck’s name, logo and a plan in the business class. The groups then rotated and those that were in the technology class designed a mini paper food truck that also functioned as their bank on the day they sold their fare to customers. The FCS students created a menu, priced the items and practiced the recipes.

We selected one day to sell the groups’ food. Each group set up a table in the commons and sold their creations. Local restaurant owners attended the event and donated prizes to the groups that sold the most. Students received awards at the end-of-the-year assembly. Our students loved the project! It was an incredible amount of extra work on my team’s part, but in the end, it was rewarding to see students be so creative and have so much pride in their work.

In the next story, I will describe beginning a catering business with my high school students as they cooked lunches for my fellow teachers. This business has spanned three years and with each year it has changed. I learned a great deal and will share valuable lessons on inspiring students and understanding their limitations.