Students will launch the project by investigating a mystery food truck dish, connecting family and community food stories to global ingredient movement, and identifying the first questions they need to answer about history, geography, economics, and user needs.

Students will gather user-centered evidence about food choices and sourcing concerns, practice interview and observation skills, and turn their notes into an empathy artifact that identifies audience needs, worries, and assumptions to test before prototyping.

Students will turn empathy notes and research into a user-centered design brief, sketch several possible product directions, and test low-fidelity versions of their Cargo Manifest, pamphlet, Sutori timeline, photo essay, or storyboard with classmates and invited adults. Across the phase, they will complete two revision rounds, use feedback to check assumptions about audience needs, and select one stronger direction to carry into the final showcase phase.

Students will present their final origin-and-sourcing products to an authentic audience, explain how history, geography, and economics shape one food truck dish, gather audience response during Food Truck Day, and close with a brief reflection conversation about sourcing, sustainability, and communication.