#TWKatHome Activities

Careers, Food Truck Owner

This week’s theme: Career as a Food Truck Owner

Welcome to TWKatHome! Our at home education focus is Food Careers. Throughout the TWKatHome series, you will get to interact with many amazing local food professionals - from farmers to food truck owners to recipe developers.

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In this week of Food Careers we are taking a look at the Food Truck Owner! We explore Kiah Gibian’s career as the chef and owner of the Wilde Thyme food truck. She also shares some behind the scenes insight on how she built her truck for today’s activity.

TasteWise Kids - are you hungry for some learning?

Do you know of any food businesses opening near you? Share a local food business that’s opening their doors this summer to our social media! Facebook (@TasteWiseKids) or Instagram (@tastewise_kids) and use the hashtags #TWKatHome and #myTWKsalad, or email info@tastewisekids.org.

Let’s explore what it looks like to be a Food Truck Owner by getting to know Kiah!

Kiah has owned and operated a Baltimore based food truck for 4 years called Wilde Thyme. Kiah grew her passion for food through farming. She loves being able to work outside, ebbing and flowing with the seasons. She farmed off and on for about 5 years, and has worked on small organic farms, mushroom farms, and on one of the only farms in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Because of Kiah’s preference for learning things through hands-on experience and practice, she also enjoys being able to teach through hands-on experience with gardening and cooking. In addition to being a farmer, Kiah has directed a farm-to-table program in Nashville and continues to use her mobile food truck for educational purposes. Before starting her own food truck she learned how to cook while farming, working in a handful of kitchens and helping a friend start his food truck.

Throughout Kiah’s career in food, one thing holds true: food can teach us so many things. From understanding the science of how food grows, to the math behind preparing it, the history of knowing where food comes from, and the art of selling it, food is one of Kiah’s favorite teachers.

In the last four years Kiah has learned so much about food, business, and Baltimore. In today’s activity she is going to teach you how she designed her food truck (she built her truck’s kitchen, including welding in the window!).

But first, have you ever thought about owning a food truck? Have you thought, what can I do with a food truck? Before Kiah built her food truck she asked a handful of friends what they would do with her empty truck. Check out the creative ways others chose to use the truck in the beginning here.

Activity: Building a Food Truck

Chef Kiah tells us about her experience building her food truck and takes us through an activity where you can design your own! Follow the Instructions below or download the full activity here. Think of it like a puzzle with room for creativity!

Materials:

  • Graph Paper
  • Scissors
  • Markers and Pens

Instructions:

Step 1

Start with two pieces of graph paper

Step 2

Take one piece of graph paper and cut it in half hamburger style.

Step 3

Each square of your graph paper will represent 5x5 inches. On one of the cut pieces of paper draw a rectangle that is 26 squares wide and 15 squares long to represent a truck that is 130 inches wide and 75 inches long.

Step 4

On the second piece of paper draw out all the equipment we need to fit in the truck. Color them in so that you can tell which on is which. FRYER: 15"x20", STOVE: 25"x20", GRIDDLE: 25"x20", WINDOW:50"x10", HAND SINK: 10"x10", FREEZER: 20"x20", FRIDGE 45"x20", SINKS: 40"X15", COUNTER: 30"x10". To help figure out how many squares to draw use the 5 Times Table below.

Building a Food Truck pg 1

Step 5

Once you've drawn each piece of equipment, go through and cut each of them out.

Step 6

Once you have cut all the equipment pieces out, take the pieces and place them into your truck in a way that they will all fit together. If you have glue or tape tape the pieces of down to the page. Once you've fit everything inside, feel free to add more equipment to make it your own!

Step 7

As a final exercise design your trucks logo! What would you name your truck? What color would it be? Would you sell food? Or would you design the inside to be something different, like a stage, or a barber's shop, or something else? What can you do in a food truck?

Keep Learning

If Fruit Could Talk: Fun Facts About "Pawpaws"

  • Pawpaws are the largest native fruit in North America.
  • They are described as tasting like a cross between a mango and a banana.
  • They are members of the custard apple family, which includes cherimoya and soursop.
  • The pawpaws enormous native range suggests that indigenous peoples may have brought seeds on their travels, plantings pawpaws along the way.
  • More information on pawpaws and how you can buy them locally can be found on Two Boots Farm’s website.
  • Pawpaws were the mystery ingredient in our Farm to Chef Maryland 2020 competition that aired last night!