When the LCPS food truck pulled onto the Centennial High School campus this morning, junior Carlos Lozano had no idea he was about to see his own design come to life.
Carlos’ award-winning artwork was selected to give the district’s first student-run food truck its look, a design created with every LCPS high school in mind.
“It feels really great that I’m going to be part of something really big for FCCLA. I can’t wait for every high school to use this,” said Carlos Lozano, an 11th-grade student at Centennial High School.
This is LCPS' first student-run food truck, giving culinary arts students from high schools throughout LCPS a hands-on opportunity to put their cooking talents and FCCLA skills into action. Through FCCLA, students develop leadership and real-world skills such as planning, goal setting, problem solving, decision making and interpersonal communication.
But before the truck could hit the road, it needed a look of its own. FCCLA advisors created a student design competition, giving students the opportunity to help make the food truck something they could all call their own.
“I tried to keep with the colors for the district and added the logos for all of the high schools, because it’s for everyone,” Carlos said.
Carlos is no stranger to getting involved. In addition to FCCLA, he participates in Best Buddies and Educators Rising, has marched with the Centennial Marching Band and hopes to become an educator someday.
For Megan Romig, Centennial High School’s culinary arts and professional baking teacher and an FCCLA advisor, seeing Carlos’ design become reality was especially rewarding.
“As his instructor, all I did was provide the opportunity,” Romig said. “I encouraged my class to submit a name and a design, and I gave them some class time. Some of them sketched it out, and Carlos, on his own, designed it in his own way.”
And while cooking may be the “bread and butter” of the culinary arts classroom, Romig says students are learning much more than recipes.
Whether students go on to culinary school or simply take a part-time job, they develop professional and life skills they can carry with them into almost any career.
The community can get its first look at the food truck during the third annual Grill and Thrill High School BBQ Contest, featuring a special-edition Battle of the Bites.
Join us on October 16 to sample some of the best BBQ in town and cheer on high school students from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Teaching and Learning Center, 505 S. Main Street.
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