What is the new Bison Bistro? The Bison Bistro is a small restaurant delivery business that will be taking place throughout the school to deliver meals to staff members.

Ms. Mease, the Life Skills teacher, along with Diane Mills, the classroom assistant, and Lois Carns, Lauren Francisco, Beth Poole, and Marsha Young, Personal Care Aides, will be running the business along with her students.

When asked why the delivery business is starting, Ms. Mease said: “This has been a dream of mine ever since I started teaching Life Skills, which was 15 years ago.  I actually saw a program up and running many years ago and thought what a neat idea it was!  I also love to cook, bake, and feed people, so what a great way to include all of my students and make it part of my curriculum!”

The headquarters of this delivery business will be located in room 102, the Life Skills Classroom, with a fully equipped kitchen to prepare the meals. Ms. Mease said deciding to start the business at Clearfield High School: “Is a great opportunity for my students to learn the ‘ins and outs’ of running a small business and fundraising (planning ahead to see what demand is going to be, planning a shopping list, going for groceries, collecting money, profit earnings, counting money).   It is also giving my students hands-on experience with many basic life skills, such as, reading and following recipes, measuring, cooking, baking, and cleaning, following safety and health rules.  We will be following safety and health guidelines such as pulling back long hair, wearing hair nets, when needed, washing hands frequently, wearing rubber gloves, and wearing aprons.”

The Bison Bistro is preparing to be up and running by early December, depending on when they receive all of their equipment and supplies. The Bison Bistro will be delivering meals every two weeks in the beginning to see how interested the faculty is in the business.

If the business is thriving, they will begin to serve meals more often. They will take orders in the faculty rooms a week in advance with Fridays being delivery days. The meals will then be delivered during the lunch periods.

If the business is doing well, they are planning to expand to delivering to the main, nurse, guidance, and administrative offices. They may also decide to do “special events” for holidays where baked goods and hot drinks will be served from the classroom in the mornings.

What can students and faculty do to help with the starting of this business? Ms. Mease states: “We have project page set up on www.DonorsChoose.org.  You can also get directly to our project’s home page by going to www.DonorsChoose.org/Ms.Mease.  It is an organization that was set up to help educators get funding for projects for their classrooms.  You can go to the website and check it out!  Here is an introduction from the website.”

Asked what else she would like to share with our readers, Ms. Mease states: “We are very excited about this project!  Like I stated earlier, it has been a dream of mine for many years!  I have just been apprehensive about getting it started.  This year I finally decided to ‘jump in feet first’ and get it going!  My students and all of the ladies in my classroom are eager to get it up and running, also.  We want to thank everyone in advance for your participation and would love to hear any feed-back once we get started!