Douglass Catering Class 11/15/12 Emily Dayton Honors C

Since the spring semester of 2012, Frederick Douglass High School has offered a culinary arts and catering class to its students. Outreach counselor Kelly Anderson envisioned the idea for the class during a tailgate at an MU football game, he said. The course originally focused on barbeque, but later broadened into a class on general catering. Bulldog BBQ, as the class has become known, meets everyday and is currently comprised of seven students. As the course has become more popular, students are now required to cook a dish before they are accepted into the class, Anderson said. Andersons students cook about three to four times a week and help cater about four events a semester. We consider a catering event a full course meal, including an entre, sometimes an appetizer, and a dessert. But we do other events too, senior Clinteauna Bolton said. All of the events to which the class caters are run through the Columbia Public School District. Since its development, Bulldog BBQ has catered to Hickman High School, the districts administrative building and some of the local elementary schools, Anderson said. Besides full meals, the students prepare pies, cookies, and of course, barbeque, which Anderson said the class considers its specialty. In September, Bulldog BBQ took its culinary skills outside of the classroom as it participated in Columbias Roots N Blues N BBQ Festival.

Dayton Page 2 Two students, along with Assistant Principal Kerry Hesse and myself competed against more than 60 other teams in four different categories, Anderson said. We actually ended up taking fourth place in the chicken category, which of course we were very proud of. Anderson said he hopes to make the festival an annual event for his students in the years to come. Because Douglass is an alternative school, designed for students struggling in traditional classrooms, Anderson said he feels Bulldog BBQ is a useful course since it teaches students valuable practical arts. The hope is to expand the program to include classes like woodworking and welding. We want to teach the students skills they can use for a possible career path, Anderson said. Senior Carlee Basinger is new to Bulldog BBQ this semester and enrolled to learn the basics of cooking, which she hopes to apply after she graduates. Bolton said good communication skills are the most important tools she has gathered from the course, which she has been a part of since its start. While the students enrolled in Bulldog BBQ vary in grade level and culinary experience, they all agreed that a love of cooking drew them to the course. Cooking has always been a passion of mine. When I go to college next year I want to minor in culinary arts. I have always been interested in the subject and I want to learn even more, Bolton said.