EATS ON THE STREET. Courtesy of a donation from Silver Springs Food, Chippewa Valley Technical College recently received a $40,000 food trailer to use in the college's Culinary Management program. (Submitted photo)

A generous donation to Chippewa Valley Technical College’s culinary program will help students learn to cook in mobile spaces, as the popularity of food trucks rises throughout the Chippewa Valley and the Midwest. 

The donated mobile food trailer (or food truck!), courtesy of Silver Spring Foods, will be used by CVTC’s Culinary Management program to teach students about working in small spaces while still maintaining the high standard of quality, service, and cleanliness that hungry locals experience through the program’s brick-and-mortar restaurant, 620 West.

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Food Trucks are now a large part of our communities’ culinary experience.

Using this mobile lab to bring our curriculum into other communities and to give our students a broader view of the culinary world is exciting.

Kevin Brown

Chef instructor

The trailer was formerly used by Silver Spring Foods – a local condiment company – at events such as Oktoberfest and Farm Technology Days, and will similarly be used for special events on campus and in the community. 

Kevin Brown, chef instructor in the program, said students are excited to begin working in the new food trailer, as they continue to pop up all over the Chippewa Valley.

“Food trucks are now a large part of our communities’ culinary experience,” Brown said in a media release. “Using this mobile lab to bring our curriculum into other communities and to give our students a broader view of the culinary world is exciting.”

While the truck will be in storage throughout much of the wintertime, students are excited to take it on the road this spring and summer, hitting up other CVTC campuses to offer other students hands-on kitchen experiences. 

“It's not just for finger foods,” said Culinary Management student Erica Jones. “We have the capabilities to prepare any kind of food in that space. The whole point of the Culinary Management degree is to prepare us for cooking in the real world, so the mobile food lab is going to be incredibly educational, because food trucks are becoming more and more popular.”

For more information about the new trailer, check out CVTC's Culinary Management program and information at cvtc.edu.