From 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 26, students at St. Johns High School on 360 Redskin Drive, will be hosting a pop-up restaurant at the school’s library to raise funds to attend a Nov. 7 leadership conference in the Valley.
“We are going to have custom hamburgers, cheeseburgers with multiple toppings, several sides, and desserts, homemade desserts,” said Regina Hitchcock, agriculture and culinary arts teacher, FFA advisor and FCCLA advisor at St. Johns high school.
The students are involved in the Family Career and Community Leaders of America organization, a national nonprofit that supports career and technical education.
“Everything is homemade,” Hitchcock said. “The cost varies from $10 to $15 depending on whether you want sides and dessert. For all first responders, military and veterans the cost is only $5, whether they do sides, no sides, burger, whatever. We believe in supporting those who support us, although everyone is invited. Credit cards and cash will be accepted.”
Hitchcock added, “Last year we catered multiple events. We did our Alumni Association dinner, the FBLA dinner, the FFA banquet and our teacher appreciation luncheon, but this is the first official pop-up restaurant, and we’ve got eight more planned.”
There will be a pop-up with a different food and menu one night a month through May, 2025. If the event generates enough interest and there’s a need to continue it, Hitchock plans to resume it in September next year with new students.
Hitchcock said the school has five kinds of career tracks. “One of them is culinary arts, which is what I teach; and then we also have childhood development; graphic arts; human services, which includes counseling, hospitality and tourism, which is where we are with culinary arts; and education and training, including early childhood and elementary education and visual arts and design.
“We focus on culinary arts because that’s where our interests lie within our student body. I’ve got two students who are in a culinary class, but they’re designing their own curriculum for fashion design, because FCCLA covers so many different career pathways that they’re allowed to do kind of what they want in competition. So to better prepare them for competition, I’m letting them do curriculum online and in person.”
According to Hitchcock they have 50 students in culinary arts. Twenty of those students who are members of FCCLA are also in the agriculture side of it. All students who are in an agriculture class are automatically a part of FFA. The FCCLA doesn’t function that way. Students have to elect to be in it and it costs money for national and state dues for individual students.
Hitchcock was proud to say that the students that are registered are very serious and are dedicated to competing in everything from business evaluation, culinary arts, cupcake decorating, fashion design, fashion sketching, childhood education and lesson plans.
The leadership conference is far more than a field trip. “There will be several different breakout sessions where the students learn chapter leadership,” Hitchcock said. “They can also learn about various areas of FCCLA from the state SCCLA officers. They teach the kids what is required to be a state officer or a national officer.
“There are going to be three breakout sessions where the kids kind of split up and go somewhere and do various leadership activities with members of other chapters from around the state. We’re going to allow all of our FCCLA students that want to go, to go. The cost is $65 per student, which includes all of the conference sessions and a lunch voucher.”