Eating out is a budget buster. Many high school economics classes include projects comparing the cost of eating at restaurants versus cooking at home. Common comparisons include spaghetti dinners, movie theatre popcorn, or pizza. Byron-Bergen Economics Teacher Nick Muhlenkamp knew this was an important lesson for his students to understand. But he also knew something else, “These kids don’t know how to cook.”
Muhlenkamp tackled both of these educational needs by designing a budgeting activity with two goals:
- To teach his students the monetary value of making a homemade pizza, and
2.To teach his students how to make a homemade pizza.
To meet Muhlenkamp’s first goal, seniors in his Economics class spent time making a budget and discussing ways to save money. “One of the things we talked about during the personal finance unit was cooking at home versus going out to eat,” said Muhlenkamp. “We discussed the importance of meal planning, making a grocery list, and sticking to it.” Students calculated the cost of pizza ingredients and compared it to the cost of ordering pizza from several local pizzerias. Then they calculated the annual savings of a family who orders pizza twice a month.
To meet his second goal, Muhlenkamp had to tackle another obstacle: cooking pizza for 70 students was not in his class budget. “I reached out to some alumni who work at Wegmans to ask if Wegmans would be willing to make a donation. This project aligned well with Wegmans’ priorities of ‘Helping Young People Succeed’ and ‘Encouraging Healthy Eating.’ Wegmans in Brockport contributed a gift card which covered a majority of the expenses.”
They were ready to make some pizza.
The class met in the FACS (family and consumer science) room and Muhlenkamp taught his Economics students how to make traditional pizza and a few health-conscious alternatives. In addition to pepperoni and cheese, students experimented with naan bread and toppings including spinach, broccoli, tomatoes, peppers, olives, and pesto. “I wanted to show the students some healthy alternatives to a traditional pizza, including some with toppings they may not normally eat,” said Muhlenkamp.
"I think the pizza activity was very beneficial because it was an interactive way to show the benefits of budgeting,” said Byron-Bergen senior Abby Vurraro. “We were able to put into action the budget that we as a class had planned out. It was a very good way to see the real-life effects of personal finance."
“I am hoping the kids take away a better understanding of budgeting and I hope they leave a little more comfortable in the kitchen,” said Muhlenkamp. “I know that many of my friends my age avoid cooking at home because they are not comfortable in the kitchen and are a little intimidated trying to cook entire meals from scratch. Hopefully, this was both a lesson in budgeting and cooking.”