Student Run Business

Students work every year to create and sell a value-added food product out of ingredients grown at Olney.

curriculum: Every year students will have a different responsibility within the business for example; Freshman would handle accounting and sales, Sophomores - marketing and advertising, Juniors- growing and harvesting, Seniors- Packaging, processing and writing a full business plan. Equipment may be needed eventually, but students will definitely need an adult facilitator to organize meetings initially. This could occur during what is now class meeting time.

Students will have to research where to sell their product and this will help them reach beyond the Olney community. Products are variable. Certainly maple syrup and honey would be among some of the most expensive products to sell but we could also sell dried tea mixes, apple butter, pumpkin butter (with a canning license) with little extra investment in equipment.

This would vary depending on what equipment is needed based on the product.

It would continue to familiarize students with the farm and garden, and empower them with useful, practical knowledge.

Students will emerge from this program with a practical understanding of what it takes to run a business, in addition to the skill of knowing how to grow something and process it. A good measure of success is if the business is actually making money and if profits increase over the years.

author: Jessica Bilecki