Ivy Tech Community College Northeast’s food truck debuted at an event at Two-EE’s Winery, near Huntington, this weekend. It also unveiled its name, selected by a committee from 576 entries. Entries came from students, employees, and community members.
The Ivy Tech Northeast food truck is called Grasshopper, a name submitted by Myra Sells, a healthcare specialist student. The committee liked “Grasshopper” in part because of its nod to Ivy Tech’s green school color and because it is a term often used to reference a novice in any area: The food truck will be run as a classroom lab by hospitality administration students at Ivy Tech Northeast.
“There are a lot of students wanting a start-up business, and this is a pretty low entry-level expense,” says Jeff Albertson, interim program chair for Hospitality Administration.
Plus, there was a need in the Fort Wayne community: Food trucks are popular around the nation, Albertson says, and Fort Wayne has a low number of food trucks per capita.
“So it’s a good niche for us to get into to educate our students, the proper way of opening a food truck,” he says.
Because the truck will be run as a lab for students in Ivy Tech Northeast’s catering class, each outing will provide a different menu, though there will be staples that allow students to add their own touches to the food items: The menu will always have a burger, a bratwurst, and a bacon-lettuce-tomato sandwich made with a pound of bacon. The truck will likely offer a tray with cured meats and imported cheeses. The truck will also offer three different kinds of bread: naan, lavash (which is a crispy cracker and will serve as a break-apart-and-eat plate for the meat and cheese tray), and pretzel rolls.
Currently, the food truck is scheduled to serve at 16 events at Two-EE’s Winery this summer. To learn when the food truck will be set up, guests can visit the Kelty’s Kafé & More Facebook group, where students and instructors share photos and information about Hospitality Administration’s goings-on, at bit.ly/IvyFood.
Grasshopper is made possible through sponsors that include Glenbrook Automotive Group, Leepoxy, and Parkview Group Health.
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