Recipe for Success
By Stacia Harris, Communications Department
Students in the North Buncombe High School (NBHS) ProStart program are hard at work scrambling eggs,
sautéing hash browns, and making biscuits from scratch. The setting for this delicious class activity is the
school’s brand new teaching kitchen (technically called a Food Lab), and the project is part of Buncombe
County Schools’ goal to graduate students “college and career” ready. The NBHS students tested out their
new kitchen one early morning in February, serving a made-from-scratch breakfast for a district advisory
council meeting.
“The kitchens were updated to reflect the shift in Career and Technical Education,” says Amy White, North
Buncombe High’s CTE teacher. “The name Home Economics changed to Family and Consumer Sciences
because gone are the days of us teaching ladies to become ‘housewives.’ We teach skills for life, but also
workplace skills. Western North Carolina is a tourism destination and these skills are in high demand in our
local economy!”
ProStart is a national course that teaches students the protocols and standard practices for working in a
restaurant kitchen. To achieve this certification, NBHS students must take ProStart I and II and complete
400 internship hours! Then, they sit for 2 national
certification exams.
“Students see this course as real,” says White. “This
doesn’t just simulate a home kitchen, it simulates a
business. Students learn valuable job skills.”
Junior Savannah Rice wants to own her own bakery one
day. She says pursuing her ProStart certification has given
her many opportunities to see the different careers
available in pastry arts.
“The learning curve is huge and the pressure can, at
times, be very hard to handle. But seeing the finished
product and watching people enjoy your product is
completely worth it,” says Rice.
North Buncombe, Erwin, and Enka High Schools all have
new and renovated Food Labs this school year. The
students are whipping up tasty food in modern facilities
that replicate the industry standard. It’s a valuable
learning tool, but st