Students Burn to Learn Over Hot Sauce

WEST CAPE MAY – Students filed into West Cape May Elementary School’s gym from youngest to oldest Jan. 7, taking their place on mats covering a portion of the floor.
The school was the scene of a presentation and discussion of entrepreneurial activity, sustainable industry, and environmental stewardship.
The students, many of them first and second graders, were unfazed by the “grown-up” topics in the presentation, asking questions throughout the hour-long event.
One of the organizers of the event, Cindy Baldachinni, runs the school’s new STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) lab. The K-6 school involves all students in the STEM curriculum.
The event in the gym was part of a year-long project in which students will learn about plant science, food chemistry and the art of entrepreneurship.
Working in a partnership with Hank’s Sauce, a local company based in Sea Isle City, West Cape May Elementary is exposing students to opportunities that exist when individuals combine science and technology with their passions, even if those passions trend to making hot sauce.
The Project
The project makes use of the association with a specialty sauce maker in order to explore various aspects of science and business activity. Each grade has its roll.
Kindergarten students will focus on the important science of food safety. “Our littlest students will learn how to keep food safe from the garden to the table,” said Baldachinni.
Students in first grade will make pickles and grow herbs in the spring, while second graders will plant, grow, harvest and serve produce grown in the school garden.
Third-grade students are experimenting with different recipes for Datil peppers and with ways to remove some of the heat from the fiery plants. On the Scoville scale measuring heat units, some of these peppers are close to the more infamous habanero.
Working with enrichment teacher Paige Calabro, students in grades four to six are concentrating on the business of food. They are engaged in making a school West Cape May secret sauce for which they then must develop plans to market and advertise their product.
This project is just part of a curriculum that seeks to integrate disciplines and show students how seemingly disparate areas of activity come together in everyday life.
The Company
Two of the founders of Hank’s Sauce were at the school to talk with the students.
Brian “Hank” Ruxton and Matthew Pittaluga told students of their time spent together in college where Ruxton was already involved in making hot sauce for personal use. When Pittaluga needed to design a logo for a graphics design class, the sauce was a natural focus for his assignment.
A business followed and almost 10 years later a packing and bottling facility in Millville and a restaurant in Sea Isle City employ anywhere from 10 people in the off-season to as many as 45, including temporary workers, in the summer.
Students were exposed to the company’s website where they could see the interconnection of apparel, restaurant menu, recipes for using the various sauces and the actual products which are bottled and packaged in an industrial park in a neighboring county.
Pittaluga explained that the company had grown sufficiently, and that this year they were experimenting with off-season weekend hours at the Sea Isle restaurant for the first time, another aspect of risk and management for the students to understand.
There is no monetary exchange involved in the partnership. The school is not seeking financial support from Hank’s Sauce. “The benefit here is education,” said Baldachinni.
Outside Support
This project and other related environmental initiatives at the school do receive support from Eco-Schools, PowerSave Schools, and Sustainable New Jersey. Separate programs run out of the STEM lab help students focus on energy conservation, sustainability, and environmental awareness.
While the school knows it can’t legally make and sell food products, Baldachinni reports that “taste tests of the secret sauce have been delicious.”
The annual May Harvest Lunch, when students and staff get to enjoy the produce from the greenhouse and gardens, should provide opportunity for all to enjoy some of their home-developed secret sauce.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.