Homewood restaurant Gobble Doggs partnered with educators at Neal Armstrong Elementary School in Richton Park to teach 10 students entrepreneurship skills. After selling their products, the students raised $157.50 for South Suburban PADS (SSPADS).
The fourth and fifth-grade students from Neal Armstrong met during lunch in the school’s Science Lab periodically in January and February. Gobble Doggs owner Annah Mitchell taught the students how to brainstorm business ideas and make, market and sell a product.
Gobble Doggs opened its Homewood location in August. Mitchell has over a decade of business experience, including catering, operating food trucks and the Gobble Doggs kiosk at the LaSalle Street Metra station in downtown Chicago.
In the entrepreneurship program, students handcrafted stress balls and affirmation bracelets. Neal Armstrong teacher Latasha Davis, who helped supervise the students, said they selected these items after Mitchell presented them with other options.
“Everyone pitched in and helped make the product, but they all had different rules when it came to checking the products out and making sure they were presentable for sales,” Davis said. “It was their own designs and creations.”
The stress balls were made of rubber and came in different colors and designs. The affirmation bracelets were made of beads and had written messages such as “be great” and “brave.”
The young entrepreneurs sold their handmade products as vendors at a parent-teacher conference on Feb. 22. Each student took home $10 in cash and an attached note that said, “Use this $10 to create something, solve a problem or serve your community.”
“Each of them also got a gift bag that included a free Gobble Doggs meal,” Mitchell said. “They got a journal so they can write down all of their ideas. They got a smaller sketchbook. So, if they have any ideas they want to sketch out, they can do that. As well as a certificate of achievement.”
The rest of the money raised was donated to SSPADS, a Homewood-based nonprofit that provides aid and shelter to those facing homelessness or housing insecurity.
“Some of the participating students may know someone who has experienced homelessness,” SSPADS executive director Doug Kenshol said, explaining why he’s grateful for the donation. “We know from school district data that about 3,000 schoolchildren experience homelessness in South Suburban Cook County every year.”
The entrepreneurship program enabled students to socialize and befriend kids from other grades and classrooms, Davis said, adding that some students expressed interest in participating in a program like this again.
“I learned how to not be shy,” student Nia Green said, describing the entrepreneurship program. “I also learned how to sell my products.”
“I want children to understand that their ideas have value and that they have the ability to create something meaningful,” Mitchell said. “By learning how to turn an idea into a product and sell it, students gain confidence, real-world skills and an understanding that a business can be a way to serve and uplift their community at any age.”
