Albuquerque Public Schools
Food Truck Wars Heat Up at Sandia High
Students learn business skills while vying for bragging rights and prizes.
The tension in the Sandia High School courtyard was palpable as culinary and DECA students worked the crowd, trying to edge out the competition for the school’s 11th annual Food Truck Challenge.
Wok Star, one of the food trucks vying for top honors, handed out samples of ramen, trying to entice students to buy a combo meal. Its offerings included orange chicken, sweet and sour chicken and TikTock ramen.
Not to be outdone, someone from Sub Station, a food truck serving turkey and ham sandwiches, went table to table, offering brownies for a couple of dollars.
Welcome to Sandia’s legendary food truck wars, a two-day event in which teams compete to outcook, outmarket, and outsell one another to be crowned top Matadors.
Hanging in the balance was a pizza party, T-shirts and, perhaps most important, bragging rights for the winner.
As the competition played out, Sandia Principal Camille Gonzales watched from the sidelines, thrilled at how engaged the students were and at all they were learning.
As part of their work in culinary and DECA classes, students on each of the six teams developed a unique food truck concept, logo, and menu, calculated recipe costs, shopped on a budget for ingredients, determined menu pricing, marketed their concepts, prepared the menu items and sold their products.
While the project dovetailed with state math standards, it also provided valuable real-world soft skills development.
“The competition teaches us how to be good with clients, how to advertise our business,” said Yaribel Rosas, a junior DECA student. “It also showed us the importance of teamwork, how everyone needs to do their job for things to work.”
Nearby, dozens of students were lined up at the Dancing Tacos truck, which was offering pulled pork, chicken and beef tacos along with nachos and churros.
“Everyone is always in the mood for tacos and nachos,” said Mycah Heinrich, a senior DECA student who worked on promoting the food truck on social media. “Our biggest limit is how fast we can get through the line.”
Inside the Sandia commons, Solomon Watley, a sophomore DECA student, was hustling to draw customers to the Fiesta de Enchiladas food truck, talking up the delicious “homemade” cuisine and refreshing snowcones his team was selling and whispering about the reheated frozen fare some of the other food trucks were offering.
While he’s never had a job before, he hopes to find one this summer, and he thinks the things he learned in the competition will help him.
“I’m learning how to speak to customers, how to manage in a fast-paced business, and it’s taking me out of my comfort zone,” Watley said.
So, who prevailed in the Sandia food truck wars?
That honor goes to … Amor Pizza, thanks in large part to junior culinary student Isla Williamson, who put her team over the top by collecting a $2,000 donation from Sandia Toyota.
“I was panicking because it was the end of spring break and I hadn’t talked to anybody about donating,” Williamson said, noting her focus had been on soccer. She walked into Sandia Toyota and was fortunate to catch the general manager.
“It was amazing, honestly,” she said as the competition was drawing to a close. “We’re in first by a landslide.”