Our Fifth Graders Launched a Nationally Recognized Food Truck
PBS News recently did a piece on Alpha School’s fifth grade food truck. Check it out! Saturday morning in Austin. You’re standing in the lobby of a car dealership (not necessarily your first choice on a weekend morning) when you look outside and see a food truck in the parking lot. Amazing, you think. Some breakfast sounds great. Outside, a line forms in the Texas sun. You smell sizzling bacon and something else, something doughy and nostalgic. Pancakes. At the cash register, a young boy (Ten? Twelve?) takes orders. When it’s your turn, he gives you a smile: “What can I get started for you today?” And that’s when you realize. This isn’t someone’s dutiful son or nephew helping out with the family business. The entire kitchen crew is ten, eleven, twelve years-old. You can see them flipping pancakes, frying bacon, printing tickets, serving food. And now, the line is 20 people deep. Orders are flying in faster than the tickets can print. No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you. No, this isn’t child labor. This is the Lil’ Dippers food truck, proudly owned and operated by fifth and sixth graders at Alpha School. A few feet away, their teacher. Bryan. He watches and observes, mostly keeping an eye on the hot griddles and ovens. (The kids are handling the customers like pros.) When your food is ready — “order up! ” — you march over to Bryan, pancakes in hand. “You have to tell me the story of this food truck.” Read the full article here
