Food Trailer Sets Up Shop With BCPS To Give Students Experience

BALTIMORE COUNTY, MD — A hands-on learning tool will be rolling into the parking lot of Baltimore County Public Schools. A new food trailer designated for career and technical education students will help them learn to prepare and serve food, as well as manage the finances and marketing of a nonprofit operation. School leaders aren't aware of any such project in the state.

“This is a passion project of mine,” MiVida Parham, CTE technical programs supervisor, said.

Parham first envisioned a food truck project five years ago.

“Every day, I would see food trucks across from our offices, and I would think, ‘Why can’t we do that with our students?’,” Parham said. “I envisioned a CTE food truck as a showcase for everything that we do – an opportunity to get more students involved, more students demonstrating and practicing what they can do.”

To guide the idea into reality, Dr. Michael Grubbs, CTE coordinator, identified funding, and CTE staff worked closely with BCPS transportation staff, Gabriel da Graca, senior purchasing agent, and Jeffrey Smith, culinary arts instructor at Sollers Point Technical High School. Along the way, the original idea for a food truck shifted into a food trailer that could be easily relocated using BCPS trucks.

The 18-foot trailer is a customized cooking/serving space that features a refrigerator, freezer, cooktops, fryers, air conditioning and service bay. The trailer was delivered in October 2020 and it has been sitting since then – relatively unnoticed –at a BCPS bus lot due to the pandemic. The food trailer was intentionally designed to match the BCPS Mobile Innovation Lab.

“The development of this project was a real partnership with the transportation office,” Parham said. “We had to work out how we would move it, store it, maintain it, develop all the specs, go through inspections, get tags, title, and insurance…. It has been a real learning experience, especially during COVID.”

Recently, as a “soft opening,” the trailer was used to serve meals. As a thank you, lunch was served to approximately 40 transportation and CTE staff members involved in developing and maintaining the trailer. The meal was prepared by Smith and Lisa Tomecek, culinary arts instructor at Western School of Technology.

The food trailer will be housed initially at Sollers Point Technical High School with a focus on providing internship opportunities for seniors and participating in school and community events countywide.

“We chose Sollers,” Parham said, “because we already have cafes at Eastern Technical High School and George Washington Carver Center for Arts and Technology, and Western Tech already does a lot of catering. In addition, Chef Smith at Sollers has experience running his own restaurant and was especially enthusiastic about this project.”

Grubbs added that, although it is a CTE Office Food Trailer, and Sollers is leading its initial use, all BCPS culinary programs will have the opportunity to use the food trailer to ensure access across Baltimore County.