Dallas ISD is rolling out a fresh concept that cooks up real-world business experience for students. In collaboration with Intuit, the brains behind financial software, DISD has unveiled a student-run food truck program—the first of its kind in Texas. According to The Dallas Express, the food truck, dubbed Curbside Delights, will cruise Dallas ISD campuses during the 2024-2025 school year, potentially serving up snacks as soon as April.
The program aims to engage students in multiple career pathways such as entrepreneurship, hospitality, and graphic design, and it involves them in every facet of the business—from permits to cooking. “I’ve never operated a food truck before,” Melvin Hicks, an 18-year-old culinary arts student at Moisés E. Molina High School, “Once I get there, it’s going to humble some people — it’s going to humble me as well. The more I know, the more I realize I don’t know. So, there’s just more to be discovered about it”, as per the Dallas ISD News.
Intuit, having previously partnered with school districts in California and Nevada, selected Dallas ISD for its range of career and technical education (CTE) programs. Dave Zasada, Intuit vice president, noted to The Dallas Express, “When we decided to launch the food truck program, we thought about Dallas ISD because it has such a strong reputation for being an innovative leader in career and technical education.” He emphasized the necessity for hands-on projects, saying, “Kids today can’t be kept engaged with pencil, paper, and a book. They want to work on real-world projects and activities, and the food truck program is a great way to do that.”
Curbside Delights will be entirely managed by students, which includes marketing, choosing the menu, and the day-to-day grind. Profits will be funneled back into the district's CTE programs. Each Dallas ISD campus will take turns operating the truck and picking its menu items, shared Jason Hamilton, Dallas ISD’s CTE coordinator, according to D Magazine, “I wanted to make sure that we had a place located on it where we can do a removable menu so that each school can provide their own menu,” Hamilton explained, “We didn’t want to take their creativity away from the students at the schools, and their identity. That was very big for us.”
Despite this innovative push, DISD has faced its share of academic hurdles. The latest accountability reports from the Texas Education Agency, indicate that in the 2021-2022 school year, a troubling 86 Dallas ISD campuses received a D or F rating for student achievements. To top it off, only 41% of students scored at grade level on STAAR exams, and nearly 20% of graduating seniors failed to snag a diploma within four years. For more details on Dallas ISD's CTE programs.
