The YE students in Garden City didn’t let a little snow get in the way of their Market Day businesses. Outside the school doors no one was out and about due to the weather, but that certainly wasn’t the case inside the doors of GCHS. Once the lunch bell rang, hundreds of students piled into the hallways to see what delicious food the students were selling this year.
I will be honest in saying that I was doubtful that the students would be able to sell the amount of volume they had anticipated in their bids. But I was definitely proven wrong! Many of the groups sold out of all of their products by the end of the second lunch and were forced to go to nearby stores to restock for the third and fourth lunches.
One group in particular, “Puppy Approved Chow,” really blew me away. They had planned to sell 500 bags of puppy chow. Having seen a few Market Days in the past, I thought they had overestimated their sales, so I mentioned they should maybe consider reducing the amount of units they planned to sell. In talking with them, I learned that they had made an agreement with the school cafeteria to allow students to purchase their puppy chow in the lunch line, using their school or “parents” lunch money. This was a great idea because many students don’t carry cash on them at school. In addition, no other groups were using the cafeteria, so they had found a captive market. To capitalize on the several hundred juniors and seniors that go off campus for lunch, Puppy Approved Chow also planned to stand outside the exits and sell puppy chow from their YE bags. Their planning and creativity definitely paid off. They ended up being one of the groups who sold out after second lunch, so they ran to Dillon’s to buy pop. When they got back to school, they reloaded their backpacks with pop and continued to make money. This group of young ladies definitely possesses the entrepreneurial spirit, and it was wonderful to see it shine through on Market Day!
One of my favorite parts of Market Day is seeing the community get involved. Crazy Cupcakes utilized local business owners and BPAs, David and Deann Crase, to refine their cupcakes. I won’t share the secret Mr. and Mr. Crase gave them, but let me tell you, those cupcakes were very moist! I ate three of them yesterday! GCHS’s nutrition coordinator and kitchen manager helped make the event a success by teaching the students about safe food preparation practices. A handful of other parents and BPAs also stopped by the event to see how successful the businesses were and of course to buy lunch.
At the end of the day the students were exhausted. They learned what it can be like to own a business as many of them spent until 9:00pm the night before cooking in the school kitchen, and then they were back at the school cooking at 6:00am. But I know they would all agree that seeing the satisfaction from their customers and making a profit made all that hard work worth it.
-Kylie Z.
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