Byron High School operates food truck called B Town Bistro

How cool is Byron High School now?

The school is in its second full year of operating a food truck, which is called B Town Bistro. At the direction of teachers Ryan Radke and Josh Bernards, students in two classes – food truck culinary and food truck entrepreneurship – oversee the food truck.

Last year, the food truck served up 24 lunches. It’s Radke’s brain child, which he transformed into the two classes after writing and receiving a $45,000 Bush grant.

“We get no monies from the school,” he said. “We are trying to teach a self-sustaining business.”

This year, the food truck opened on Friday, in conjunction with homecoming, and was set up for business at the Byron Middle School. About 70 high school students are involved.

Radke generated some of the menu ideas for the food truck, including the pork bowl and egg roll burger. But students also worked on coming up with recipes, such as for the Philly cheese steak brat, which they’re working on developing with Fareway in Byron.

Currently, offered at B Town Bistro are jambalaya and the pork bowl, which are rotated and cost $9 each. “People are satisfied with the quality,” Radke said. “The vegetables are from our school greenhouse, pork comes from a farm in Goodhue and cheese is from Pace Dairy.”

They are aiming for a “farm to table concept with unique, high quality food items,” he said.

All of the profits made from the B Town Bistro go back into the program, though students are also considering donating proceeds to an area non-profit.

Students say they love their food truck classes.

“I love working with food and cooking,” said eleventh-grader Lindsi Maes. “I thought it would be really fun to cook for people inside of the food truck.”

Tenth grader Paige Cronk said she likes her food truck culinary class because it’s different. “It’s exciting to look forward to,” she said. “I like the jambalaya.”

“It’s just a really unique class,” Radke said of food truck culinary, which is a family and consumer sciences – previously known as home ec – course. “You want to have those classes in school where you show the relevance. We want to be thriving and show the importance of elective classes and how they can carry this into real life.”