The struggle of how a student-run cafeteria became financially viable

(Part 2 of a series on Making high school entrepreneurship work)

During President Ferdinand Marcos’ so-called Bagong Lipunan governance, the pet project of his First Lady Imelda Marcos was the Sariling Sikap livelihood projects. Her budget was so generous and yet it all failed because there was no foolproof system. It should have sustained the DECS (Department of Education, Culture and Sports) Work Education entrepreneurship program, which was required in all high schools including public schools.

How did the DECS Work Education work out? The Secretarial course lacked typewriters. Dressmaking did not provide fabrics, instead paper dress patterns were cut out. Cosmetology was also frustrating since even for shampooing, wash basins and water were often missing. Food Technology barely made use of a well-equipped kitchen.

1966-76: The beginnings and preparation for a high school food enterprise

The first decade of the Operation Brotherhood Montessori school operation, 1966-1976, saw the establishment of the OB Montessori preschool and elementary school with its corresponding teacher training programs. The manufacture of the required standardized Montessori apparata began, using materials I bought from Gonzaga, Italy and the Nienhuis factory in Holland as patterns. I was already a graduate of AB major in Nutrition, when I concluded a one-year proficiency course at the Centro Montessori Internazionale at Perugia and another year training at the AMI Elementary School Teacher Training Center of Bergamo in northern Italy.

A second apartment suite was temporarily rented by Operation Brotherhood International (OBI) for our first OB Montessori preschool adjacent to its headquarters at the Syquia apartments in M.H. del Pilar Street, Manila. With the increase in enrollment, we joined the OBI as it relocated its headquarters at the Lichauco compound in Pedro Gil, Sta. Ana.

Montessori education requires a fully-equipped "Prepared Environment" to condition students to work and get things done. All tools must be complete, presentable, and functional. However, in 1975, when OB Montessori Center then complete with both preschool and grade school, transferred and made its permanent headquarters at the Arellano compound in Greenhills, our "Prepared Environment" was somewhat crude. We could not afford then a school building with complete equipment, so we made do with the residential house and four-door apartments of the late PAF Chief of Staff General Arellano.

Home Arts for Grades 4 to 7 is not aimed at making money

In Sandy Araneta’s article last July 20, entitled "Public school students to study entrepreneurship soon", she reported, "The ‘Go Negosyo Campaign Teen Edition’ was introduced by the Department of Education and private entrepreneurs, a program the DepEd will begin pilot testing in some public schools and hopefully, in some ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS, as well."

This will make children engage in livelihood enterprises violating the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) Articles, which state that elementary school children must not be exploited by adults. The CRC Articles recognizing and respecting the true nature of grade school children with their strong intelligence and moral plenty believed that this stage of growth should focus on "learning how to learn". Thus, poor families should be redirected so that they do not turn their children into sidewalk/street vendors at odd hours of the day and night when they should be at home or in school. It should be the parents working, but the fathers are usually drunkards and the mothers just sit around while bossing the small children and letting them look for customers.

By the time we started Grade IV, I introduced a special curriculum called Home Arts. It was much more than the DECS Home Economics curriculum, which was usually a bit of cooking and a bit of sewing or embroidery. Home Arts for Grades IV to VII is not aimed at making money, but to prepare the children for a comprehensive program for the home and the family: Filipino cooking, Housekeeping, Grooming and Hygiene, Family Care from infancy, adolescence to adulthood.

The home-style kitchen (with one oven with four burners, a sink with cabinets, a 10 cubic feet refrigerator, and a rectangular work table) at the Arellano compound was shared by both the grade school and high school students. It had an adjacent sala (living room) and bedroom, which was used by the Home Arts grade school students.

1976-1986: Adding money making culinary activities

For years, I have been planning to establish Dr. Montessori’s vision of a professional high school to satisfy the natural inclination of adolescent students for economic independence. She believed that human development has not kept pace with technological and scientific progress.

To introduce them to professional culinary service, I arranged field trips to the Philippine Airline kitchen and tours at five-star hotel food outlets. The high school students also started the Rainbow Catering Service for preschoolers. For three years, they were only able to contract a few parties serving ice cream and cakes. Marketing strategy was missing. They were more successful with the annual food fair in December with Hawaiian, Japanese or American themes. They also prepared P25 lunches for an average of 50 students and teachers who made regular orders.

When I lived in Italy for two years, I got used to my padrona serving three course meals for lunch with wine: brood (soup); carne, pollo o pesce con insalata (meat, chicken or fish dish with fresh salad) and fruits of the season – This is the typical European food service in the trattoria or in the university mensa (mess hall). Thus, I added the unique experience of the European way of eating by letting my junior high school students prepare a sit-down dinner of three courses complete with wine in my own house. This was a free treat for their parents.

The class was divided into four groups to prepare the environment: the purchaser or marketer; the cooks; the waiters; and the housekeepers who washed the dishes and made sure my house would be restored to order. For three years, I let them use my collection of Wedgewood, Limoges or Italian chinaware, silverware and crystals.

1986-1987: Finally, the real Professional High School

In 1986, Martial Law ended and bank loan interest was unusually low. We were able to build two four-storey buildings. The first high school graduates were able to use the modern kitchen with four well-equipped bays complete with refrigerators and freezers, as well as four ovens with burners. The school balcony adjacent to it, the Café Lycee Jasmin had "art nouveau" counters and stools to accommodate 20 customers for each of the three lunch sittings.

The Food Service curriculum was perfected: Freshmen focused on Science in the Kitchen. Sophomores combined Nutrition and Catering with more preschool students as customers. Junior students prepared banquet dinner in the school lobby. Senior students specialized in Food Technology learning to process meat, and prepare bottled or canned food such as tocino, chorizo, ham, jams and marmalades. Months before December, they increase the volume of production for the Food Fair and Minimart.

The Food Fair and Minimart in December involves the whole high school department. By year 2000, it included the OBMC College Culinary students whose practice is in our Ristorante La Dolce Fontana and, therefore, provided a variety of packed pastas and pizzas. Christmas cakes and cookies in their pretty boxes were very saleable. They took charge of al fresco dining with grilled steak and Gindara fish. Every year, this has attracted the attendance of guests from several private and public schools, including officials from the Department of Education, TESDA, and CHED. Now, the other OBMC branches in Sta. Ana, Las Piñas and Angeles hold their own Food Fair.

‘Real’ entrepreneurship - professional services plus income

How much does the Minimart earn? Between 1990 to 2000 using capital from the school, students earn a profit from P5,000 to P25,000 — 50 percent income. Due to increased demands, school investment became bigger so that students had a profit of P52,500 from 2000 to 2002. Every year since then, profit increased from 80 percent in 2004, 94 percent in 2005 and 100 percent last year or an income of P115,000. Profits earned go to the improvement of the Prepared Environment of the cafeterias.

Today, the Rainbow Catering Club has involved students from first to fourth year high school students catering to both preschool and primary grade school students. Since the full package includes invitation, unique menu, caterers and emcee dressed in clown costumes, parlor games and giveaways, parents prefer them to McDonalds or Jollibee party packages. Costing P4,300 for a class of 30 students, this includes a costume for the birthday child whether it is a Clown, Indian, Disney or Fiesta sa Nayon theme.

The European-style dinner no longer uses my house. It is an annual formal dinner-show, usually held in February at the 8th floor Maria Montessori Theater-Hall by the third year high school students. Tagged today as "Corporate Event", they charge P350 per guest. In the past few years, the students’ guests have increased to 400. Parents, relatives, friends and alumni eagerly make reservations to watch the student chefs, waiters, ushers and stage people perform. A student band would provide dinner music.

No shortcut to a successful entrepreneurship program

It has been almost 25 years now since I developed the O.B. Montessori Professional High School’s Entrepreneurship Program. Now perfect, we easily replicate it every year. The formula in achieving such a program depends on four important factors: the Prepared Environment to suit the business enterprise; sourcing investment from the school or parents; the accounting system; and the skilled teachers. The usual preparation of modules to make students learn how to run a business without practice will never work out. The secret of success lies in repeated practice with constructive criticism until the program perfects itself with the students.

(For more information or reaction, please e-mail at [email protected] or [email protected])