Washoe County PS students are teaming up on Wednesday to serve a Thanksgiving meal to at-risk and homeless youth across Reno, using a food truck designed to give culinary students real-world experience.
At 11 a.m. on Wednesday at the Eddy House, located at 888 Willow Street in Reno, Global Street Foods, the district’s student-run food truck, will offer a full holiday lunch.
Twenty students plan to participate and estimate that they will serve about 200 people at the event.
Global Street Foods is the first Washoe County School District Career and Technical Education (CTE) culinary food truck. It is operated through Reed High School’s CTE Culinary Program and was purchased by Intuit as part of the Intuit Food Truck Program.
The program is a simulated workplace experience that helps students build hands-on skills in a professional setting with a focus on entrepreneurship and collaboration across CTE pathways.
The program was created to support schools in offering strong CTE opportunities. Students in the culinary pathway need access to a commercial kitchen to prepare for careers in the industry.
Along with Reed High School’s culinary classroom kitchen, the food truck gives students what they describe as an internship on wheels as they bring their dishes to the community.
Intuit is donating $5,000 to cover ingredients, prep materials, transportation, and packaging for the meal.
Students from AACT, Debbie Smith CTE Academy, Incline, Reed, and Sparks high schools will work inside the truck to prepare the traditional meal, which organizers say is an example of youth supporting youth as it is served to Eddy House clients.
Eddy House provides wrap-around services for homeless, runaway, foster, and other at-risk youth ages 18 to 24.
In recognition of National Homeless Youth Awareness Month, the group is drawing attention to the need for safe shelter, consistent support, and paths to independence for young people in Northern Nevada.
