Three food trucks will rally at Vincent J. Maloney School next week as part of a school-wide effort to raise cash for the food bank and spice up Language Arts classes.
The junior high school's food truck rally is this Tuesday from noon until 12:40 p.m. Edmonton's Orbit, Drift, and Lemongrass Grill trucks will be on site to sell gourmet tacos, sandwiches and Asian cuisine to students and parents, with 50 cents of every purchase going to support the St. Albert Food Bank.
It's the finale of a month-long Grade 8 IB Language Arts project taught by teacher Kelly Montpetit – one that had students interview food truck owners and make their own model trucks.
Montpetit says the trucks will offer a variety of healthy food choices (although one of them does have poutine), adding that she hopes students won't be too scared to try out new foods.
"Everybody's excited. You get to not have a bag lunch for a day."
Serving up LA
The food truck project is part of the school's yearlong experiment with project or inquiry-based learning.
Teachers used to act as the fount of all knowledge in schools, imparting lessons to students, says principal Greg Lamer. But in an age where students can find out whatever they want online, it's now a teacher's job to help students learn to be creative and ask good questions.
Instead of having a teacher teach lessons, inquiry-based learning has teachers introduce a problem or question to students and act as guides as they explore a topic, Lamer says. Each unit ends with a real-world, practical project that applies what the students have learned.
"It makes the learning more real."
Montpetit says she got the idea for this project after watching the TV show MasterChef and reading about food trucks in the Gazette.
"I'm kind of an addict for cooking shows," she admits.
She teamed up with the rest of the school's Language Arts teachers to develop a unit around the trucks.
Students had to design a theme, logo and menu for their food truck and write several ads and newspaper articles on it, Montpetit says.
They also had to create a mock-up of a truck. Some stuck with drawings, while others made models using paper, Styrofoam, CG graphics and a 3D printer.
Student Sajad Karimi said he went with an India-themed "Taste of Bollywood" truck for his project.
"India has very authentic food" with lots of spices, he says, when asked about his theme. His family is also from that region.
Other trucks included a Harry Potter-themed truck that served peppermint toads, a cake truck promoted by Marie "Let them eat cake" Antoinette, and the "Gooey Grill," which promises half-price sandwiches to anyone who brings their own cheese.
"We had so much fun on this," Montpetit says.
Students also got to tour the Orbit food truck and speak with its owner, Marc Swerda, who substitute-teaches at the school, about the food truck business.
"We talked about careers, we talked about becoming a newspaper reporter. We talked about owning your own business."
Since IB courses emphasize community service, Montpetit says she worked with Swerda to hold a fundraiser for the food bank to cap off the event.
"This is about food, so let's make it come back to the community and feeding the community," she says.
Students designed the posters and videos used to promote the event to the rest of the school, she adds.
Practical language arts
Lamer says the food-truck theme made the lessons real and practical.
"They didn't just read a story about a guy who runs a food truck … They had somebody come with their food truck."
It was very hands-on and great for students who didn't want to sit still all day, Karimi says.
"They get to do stuff which is more fun."
Montpetit says this food truck unit made Language Arts a lot more enjoyable for her students, and hopes that it showed them how Language Arts was about more than just writing assignments.
"It's part of your real life. When you go out in the real world you may end up using Language Arts in places you never expected."
Parents are asked to wait until 12:30 p.m. before they line up at the food trucks so the students get first crack at them. Call the school at 780-458-1113 for details.
