A lot of hard work went into Sunset Bites, NBC 7’s Shellye Leggett reports.
The San Diego Unified School District unveiled its first student-designed and student-run food truck on Tuesday.
During its inaugural year, students from Morse, San Diego, Mira Mesa, Hoover and Garfield high schools who are in multiple career pathways will gain hands-on learning experiences managing the roving culinary business.
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“That hands-on experience really sets you up for a good college career for all the jobs that are coming,” Mya Diaz, a Patrick Henry High senior, said.
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Sunset Bites was named by Mira Mesa High senior Kristine Huynh.
“When I think of San Diego, I think of sunsets and all the good food," Huynh said. "Me and my family would always buy tacos and bring it to the beach."
The graphic designs were also created by students, including Diaz.
“We pulled together keywords like sunsets and bites," Diaz told NBC 7. "Thinking of sunsets, we used sunset colors and a color palette. Bites we used — what do you bite? You bite food,” Diaz said.
The San Diego-based company Intuit donated a fully operational food truck that is equipped with a commercial-grade kitchen and will help college, career and technical education students develop technical, financial and entrepreneurial skills.
“They recognized that supporting our students and building work-readiness skills, financial literacy skills, entrepreneurship skills is going to help the workforce of the future,” Sarah Vielma, the district's director of college, career and technical education, said.
Vielma said students will be able to bring a bright new look to the future of the workforce.
“This is on that kind of furthest level of where they will actually be able to implement real-world learning,” Vielma said.
As for when you can sink your teeth into the food served from Sunset Bites? They expect to be up and running by the end of 2024.
The Intuit Food Truck Program is currently helping run trucks around California and in other states.
