Emily, Marah and Vinnie (right) pose while working out of Vinnie’s Smokin’ BBQ food truck, which is now parked at Riverfront School & Career Center every Thursday providing work experience for Riverfront students.
Vinnie Cowan, who has owned and operated Vinnie’s Smokin’ BBQ along with his wife Debbie since roughly 2015, has entered into an informal partnership with Looking Glass Riverfront School & Career Center (1666 West 12th Ave) in which the students work in his food truck, parked at Riverfront every Thursday offering lunch from 11AM to 2PM, and receive paychecks from Looking Glass via a workforce readiness grant program.
“We always try and give back to our community and felt that this was a great way to offer the kids some work experience,” Vinnie explained. “And the youth workers have been great! I’m actually hoping to hire a couple of them this summer when they’re out of school.”
Vinnie hopes for this partnership to continue and grow and is thankful for the new employee pipeline potential as well.
“It’s been slow in the beginning, but that’s normal for a new food truck location,” said Vinnie. Youth are responsible for food prep, cleanup, customer service and handling the cash register. Vinnie provided several classroom sessions and a few days of training in the food truck with each of the five youth involved in the work experience. And Vinnie also shares tips with the shift workers.
The Riverfront students are paid via a workforce readiness grant Looking Glass was awarded in 2022 from the Youth Development Division. The grant is called Future Ready Oregon 2022 and is meant to advance opportunities for underserved communities to support workforce success.
Emily, a Riverfront student, works the front counter at Vinnie’s Smokin’ BBQ as part of a Looking Glass workforce readiness program.
Two of the students shared their favorite things about this program. Emily and Marah both agreed getting the real world job experience and resume building were hugely important to them. Both had previous work experience at local pizza restaurants. They’ve been impressed with Vinnie’s food prep and also the quality of his food and enjoy the customer interactions.
“It’s also a real bonding experience working inside the truck,” Emily said. “Things get tight in there and when it’s busy it can get a little hectic but it’s a lot of fun. Vinnie just reminds us to focus on one customer at a time and provide good service - Vinnie is so good at this!”
Cheryl Zwillinger, Director of Riverfront School & Career Center, hopes to work with additional food trucks and have different ones on site on additional weekdays to provide more work experience opportunities. Riverfront students obtain their food handlers cards as part of the job training program. Finding community work placements for students can be challenging. Having a job opportunity right at the school is great.
“Riverfront's partnership with Vinnie' Smokin' BBQ is a win-win opportunity for everyone involved!” said Zwillinger. “Students gain hands-on paid work experience in a fun environment. They also earn high school credit based on the number of hours they work. We appreciate the opportunity to partner with a locally owned business that offers a quality product as well. Increasing the number of days we have food trucks at Riverfront would allow more students to participate in this valuable program.”
Looking Glass would love to see more patrons come by and dine at Vinnie’s on Thursdays from 11 to 2. And if additional food trucks have interest in parking there and working with the Riverfront students, they should contact Zwillinger at cheryl.zwillinger@lookingglass.us.