THE MAKING Workshops OF PASS THE SPATULA Meet The Team!
Pass The Spatula, a student-led magazine featured in the New York Times, started in 2020 during COVID-19, when the students of the Food and Finance High School were not able to participate in person for their Junior Showcase. Through the Food Media program at Food Education Fund, the magazine lives on and, now in its fourth year, Pass The Spatula has expanded from 12 students to over 30 students from three different schools: Food and Finance High School, High School of Hospitality Management, and High School of Environmental Studies. Students involved in Pass The Spatula learn how to illustrate, develop recipes, copy edit, write copy, engage with social accounts, choose intentional content, and this year, for the first time ever, make a podcast! Once complete, students have a chance to apply for paid internships and receive free culinary supplies, as well as learn from and network with professionals in the food media world. Issue 1 focused on Chefs of Color, Issue 2 focused on Food Justice, and Issue 3 focused on Global Food and Mental Health Awareness. This year in Issue 4, our students are excited to dive deep into Entrepreneurship, including the intersection of identities, women in the kitchen, and mom-and-pop/ local businesses. The magazine features a diverse range of content that includes interviews with up-and-coming entrepreneurs, tips and tricks for starting a business, and a variety of mouth-watering recipes. During this entire process, students are broken up into teams and have assignments to work through together. The editorial team brainstorms topics and writes editorials, such as opinion pieces, informative pieces, and profiles. The creative team oversees the magazine design and provides illustrations. The recipe development team oversees recipe production, and the entertainment team provides valueadds to the magazine. The interview team takes care of selecting, writing questions, and interviewing high-profile entrepreneurs that fit within our theme. The marketing team learns about advertising outreach and creates and oversees social media. This year, we’re lucky enough to have an additional full podcasting team, on top of their regular team assignments, which will record at CityVox led by Kerry Diamond of Cherry Bombe.
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For our first workshop, the PTS team decided on the theme and dug into the question “What is Food Media?” (see Food Media Assignment pg. 16-17).
1 Magazine Development We have honored guest speaker Amber Mayfield of While Entertaining and To Be Hosted, who covered the topic of magazine development. Students brainstormed ways to keep readers entertained and engaged while reading PTS, with ideas ranging from crossword puzzles (as seen on pg. 89) and fun lists (as seen on pg. 53).
2 Food Entrepreneur Panel Our second guest speakers were a panel of up-and-coming entrepreneurs: Kyle-Cuffie Scott from Darnel’s Cakes, Chef Lay Alston from SoulandWheel (see her feature on pg. 50), and cousin duo B and Sam from Bite Mini Donuts. We chatted about what’s it like to start a business, the challenges they face, and key tips and tricks to keep in mind.
