Emily Willardson is a family and consumer science teacher at Wasatch High School in Heber, Utah. She is dedicated to instilling a business skillset in her students. Her natural entrepreneurial spirit ignited a fire in her middle school students selling food truck fare. When she transitioned to high school, her business flare found a new flame. She also learned the value of understanding how to manage students, including expectations and limitations. 

Click here to read the first story, “Instilling Business Skills Throughout the Curriculum."

In this second installment, Emily shares her student catering business experience with readers. (Emily earned the 2024 CAFÉ Kendall College/National Louis University Entrepreneurship Award.)

Café Pollinate regenerates itself with each new student cohort.
By Emily Willardson

When I began teaching a ProStart class at Wasatch High School, I started with what I knew: how to cook good and healthy food. 

Over time, all the teachers in my hallway began gathering in the Foods room eating lunch together. I quickly noticed some teachers had very low-quality meals, ate a school lunch, or went out to eat. I knew my class could make a positive difference for these teachers. This was the catalyst for my next student-business idea, providing nutritious lunches to high school teachers. 

The class started by creating a few lunches and desserts and sharing the food with the teachers in our hall. This turned out to be our business’s market research. Students continued the research by asking how much teachers would be willing to pay for the items. 

I set up the ProStart class so that each student team made a different recipe. For example, if we made scones, one team made pumpkin, another team lemon and another team vanilla. We delivered samples of each scone and asked the teachers in the hall which they liked best. We did the same process with soups and other lunch items. One by one, we narrowed down what foods the teachers liked the best. We altered some of the items if we could and dropped the items the teachers didn’t like. 

The class decided to open a business selling lunches to teachers and staff throughout the entire building – more than 160 people. The money raised would go toward an end-of-year field trip. Next, we needed to name our business. Students submitted ideas and logos centered around our school mascot. (We are the Wasatch High School Wasps.) The class voted and voilà, Café Pollinate was born. Students created the menu which we practiced in class, they also created a flier and an order form. 

I was doing most of the work at the beginning. I found recipes, packaging, sent emails, printed labels, created all the shopping lists, and did all the shopping. As time went on and my trust in the students grew, I passed the work on to them. They printed the labels and figured out how much packaging was needed and where to buy it. The students found new recipes with many sharing some their families loved. I found when a student shared a treasured recipe they took ownership and want it done right. 

The first year we made about $1,000, which we used to tour a local university and the students went to breakfast where a local competitive chef created his competition meal for them. It was a very memorable day and a great way to end the school year! I learned a lot and was ready to begin the following year with a new cohort of students. 

However, the second year proved to be very different than the first year with a much more difficult student group. Most of the students were not invested in the class and could not be trusted to do the job right. They were not interested in working hard and I was on them all the time. We completed two or three teacher lunches and then I stopped. The class could not offer the quality I required. I scaled it down to offering desserts, which went okay a few times. But ultimately the students could not produce high-quality food, After several attempts, I shut down the catering business for the rest of the year. Only two of the 20 students in my class were invited back into ProStart this year

I had to change my program for this to work. I read Chef Charles Carroll’s book, “Leadership Lessons from a Chef: Taking Time to Be Great.” (Thanks CAFÉ for introducing me to him at last year’s Leadership Conference.) Chef Carroll talks about having guiding principles and creating excellence in a kitchen. I went through each of his guiding principles and came up with 14 of the most important lessons for me and my classroom. 

This year I started with 18 students which included the two returning from last year. I began class with my 14 principles and told the students I expected them to be followed. I also said that if they were not willing to abide by my principles then they should find another class. All my students agreed that they wanted this class and business to be successful and were willing to work hard at creating a great menu for teachers.

The first task was to get the students ServSafe certified. In addition to the safety and sanitation training, the students helped make bread with 80 kindergarten students and scooped 100 gallons of ice cream for a regional CTE event. We are also in charge of food for our community Thanksgiving. Our time planning Café Pollenates’ lunches this semester has been limited. However, we are working on practicing recipes and deciding packaging, labels, shopping lists and costing. We hope to start selling this month. 

This process has instilled business skills in my students and taught me business leadership skills as well. It has been a great experience all around.