Dr. Philip Tew, PhD / JD

Conference Day Overview

Students will arrive to the A-State campus on the day of the Small Business Leadership Challenge and take over the 3rd floor of our Student Union.

The morning will have multiple hands-on workshops for students while finalists give their presentation to our judges. Everything is completely run by our college students and staff, so teachers can take a break!

The afternoon will be split with half of the students having lunch in our Acansa Dining Hall – our buffet-style cafeteria at a group rate of $8 per student – and half of the students participating in our Grocery Games workshop where they will receive grocery lists and work in teams to obtain all items at the best cost.

Registration Instructions

For this conference, there will be three separate registration links.

Teacher Registration – This will be for each teacher to submit their information as well as total student headcounts. We will need one for each school (so if you are bringing students from multiple schools, we will need multiple forms).

Non-Competing Student Registration – This will be for any students you are bringing that will not participate in the competition aspect but will attend our conference day.

Competing Team Registration – This form will register the competing students as well as submit their materials. All materials will need to be accessible/public through whatever platform you are using (Google Drive, Canva, YouTube, etc.). There will also be space to register up to 5 students in a team. A form will need to be completed for each team.

Competition Rules

Students may work in groups of 2-5 students to create a healthy (or healthier alternative) food item and accompanying food cart. By “healthy”, we are looking for foods that fall under 250 calories per serving with less than 10g of fat and 10g of sugar.

To qualify for the overall grand prize awards, submissions must include all of the following:

• One-page written business plan
• Logo
• Recipe card with nutrition information
• 5-minute (or less) demonstration Food Network-style video

If teams do not submit all four parts, they will not be chosen as finalists, but they still have the opportunity to place in the individual categories.

The top 8 finalists will be announced the week before the conference. These teams will need to bring 5 servings of their product on conference day for our judges.

Business Plan

Business Plans should include:

• Part 1 – Management Team
  • Who are your group members?
  • What role did each play in the creation of your Food Cart?
• Part 2 – Food Cart Information
  • What’s the name of your Food Cart?
  • What’s the featured food/drink item you are preparing?
  • What’s your tagline/slogan?
  • What’s your (pretend) social media handle?
• Part 3 – Food Creation
  • What does your food look like?
  • What ingredients did you use?
• Part 4 – Food Qualities
  • What are the top 5 qualities that make your food nutritious and/or delicious?
  • Why should someone buy from your food cart?
• Part 5 – Price
  • How much does it cost to make one portion?
  • At what price are you selling one portion?
  • What profit will you make per portion (price – cost)?

Below is a document to record your answers.

Logo

Logos can be done by hand or with an online tool like Canva. Logos should include:

• Food cart name
• Picture/graphics representing the food/drink/food cart name
• Tag line for your food cart

Check out our 2025 winner below!

Recipe Card

Recipe cards should include:

• Food cart name
• Price per serving
• Tag line
• Ingredients, including nutrition information per serving

Check out our 2025 winner below!

Demonstration Food Network-Style Video

Demonstration videos should be 5 minutes or less. It should include:

• Food cart name
• Food or drink (you are showing how to make it)
• Ingredients, including nutrition information
• Why is your food or drink healthy or healthier than the alternative?

Check out our 2025 winner below!