We have been involved with Healdsburg High School’s internship program the last 5 years and just had the chance to bring some marketing techniques right into their hands. How so? Well, the students in the culinary program are working hard at their school to cook up some delicious food for the other students in the cafeteria, but they wanted some help and guidance to promote it. These kids are going to be in food industry, and even if you work for a restaurant or produce food yourself you are going to have to touch on promotion of that business at some point. It could be creating a flyer for a dinner you are having, advertising products for sale in a restaurant or even in the back end, developing menus, or showcasing products especially in restaurant to show what they look like beyond on the menu. It is all about bringing value to the kids and showing them how they can bring value to the food they are cooking.

What have we done so far?

The first thing we did was hold a kick off meeting with the students to learn about the products they are producing and wanting help promoting to the other students for sale in the cafeteria. Their main focus was that their products are healthy and fresh as opposed to the cafeteria food which is bought in large quantities.

Next we came up with ideas for displaying info about products in cafeteria in flyers for distribution and informational insert that go out with the student bulletin.

Now the best part and what the students said was the funnest day they had all year, the photoshoot! We came over and set up a professional photoshoot on site. Each of the students got to prepare their favorite dish and make it look presentable, because in a restaurant presentation is one of the most important things. They got to experience some photo styling techniques of their own.