GAR food truck project winners take educational trip to TGI Fridays
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WILKES-BARRE — The winners of the GAR Memorial Middle School food truck project took a field trip to TGI Fridays Thursday morning, where they enjoyed an interactive tour of the restaurant and a special luncheon.
Students in Anthony Mercadante’s 6th grade STEM class worked in groups to create their very own “food truck” business. Students learned about the ins and outs of food service, created a plan for their business and then designed and build models of their food trucks.
Three-hundred twenty 6th grade students, across 15 sections, participated in the project. When it was finished, students voted for their favorite food truck. Fifty-two students from the winning groups took part in Thursday’s field trip.
The trip to TGI Fridays gave students the opportunity to apply the business concepts they learned about in class to a real-world setting. Afterwards, they enjoyed a private lunch provided by the Fridays staff.
Overall, the project took about six weeks to complete. Mercadante said he originally drew up the outline for the project two years ago, but put it on hold because of the pandemic. Because the STEM class he teaches is “project based,” he figured the food truck simulation would be a “fun and educational” way for the students to incorporate the real world into their studies.
The project was incredibly immersive and detailed, with students deciding on a menu and operating hours, as well as shopping for ingredients and picking a manager. Students then put their math skills to the test to actually build the food trucks.
Students Amiyah Whitest, 12, and Kyleigh Mathews, 11, said they used real life food trucks as inspiration for their design and menu.
“We looked up different taco trucks and used some of their ideas,” Mathews explained, “We added our own toppings.”
Matthews added that it was nice having other students to work with because it made the process go by much faster.
Getting the students to work together and problem solve as a team was the most important part for Mercadante. It also turned out to be the kids’ favorite part.
“They loved it,” said Mercadante. “When we got done with this project, they wanted to know when the next group project was going to be.”
The field trip portion of the project came about because GAR Memorial Middle School Principal Melissa Myers said she wanted the students to be able to make “that real life application connection” with what they learned about it class. Melissa said that because the state of Pennsylvania focuses on “career development and career readiness” in its schools, it was important to provide the students with that “real-world opportunity and experience.”
Vice President of Restaurant Operations for Metz Culinary Management and Lead Operations Manager at Fridays, Rick Sell was more than happy to host the students Thursday morning, as he was “really impressed” with the food truck project.
“It was a really comprehensive project that they did at the school,” Sell said. “There were a lot of similarities between what they were working on and what we do every day.”
Sell, along with restaurant employee Jose Cazares, led students on an interactive tour around the restaurant.
Cazares said they walked students through the entire food service process, from the different stations to how online orders are processed. Cazares told students that it’s important for servers to ask customers questions regarding food allergies or if they need certain accommodations like wheelchair accessibility.
Myers said that GAR has a “very diverse student population,” and it was wonderful to see Cazares, who is bilingual, connect with and translate for students that are either bilingual or non-English speaking.
Because of the success of the project, Myers is hopeful the school will do more like it in the future. In addition to thanking Sell for supporting GAR, Myers offered her thanks and congratulations to all 320 students who participated in the project, for their hard work and creativity.