Chris and Susan Muth ‘73 recently had a Skype call with two of the advanced culinary arts classes at SC. Chris and Susan co-own McCabe’s Granola, an organic granola company based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and founded in 2011.

McCabe’s Granola is now available in 800 Kroger, 45 Jewel-Osco and 45 Meijer stores, Muth said. The granola is also sold online and in many smaller grocery stores throughout the Midwest. On Nov. 12, the Muths had a video conference with two advanced culinary arts classes and spoke to them about nutrition and the food industry, culinary arts teacher Kate Mitchell said.

Chris and Susan reached out to the LT administration about establishing a scholarship in their company’s name for a student who is interested in entrepreneurship or the food industry, Susan said.

“My husband and I both went to LT and loved the school,” Susan said. “We simply wanted to give back.”

After establishing the scholarship, the Muths worked with Mitchell to create a presentation for the advanced culinary arts classes that would coincide with their final project. As a part of the final project for the class, students have to design a food truck. This semester’s food truck was to be centered around McCabe’s Granola, Mitchell said.

“They have to design a food truck using their product, their vision and their passion,” Mitchell said. “It’s really up to the students to come up with a way to use the product.”

Through Susan and Chris, the students were able to get advice from people who had been successful in the food industry, which gave them a more immersive take on their project, Mitchell said.

“I think the students gained a first glance into a real world example, and it probably ignited their imaginations about what their work future could look like,” Susan said.

Chris and Susan also talked to the students about health and nutrition, mainly focusing on how foods that appear to be healthy may not be, Susan said.

“There are so many toxins and pesticides in the food chain today,” Susan said. “They need to consider eating ‘clean’ by eating food that is good for digestion like olive oil, flax seeds, nuts and oats which wash out the toxins.”

After their presentation, students had time for a question and answer session with Chris and Susan, Mitchell said. The students were engaged and asked questions about how their company started and how to be successful business owners.

“I really appreciate that they took the time out of their days to talk to a bunch of aspiring culinary professionals,” Amanda Alksnis ‘20 said. “They actually wanted to hear our questions, and give us the best advice they could.”

The skype session was recorded, and Mitchell hopes to implement McCabe’s Granola into the advanced culinary arts classes in future semesters.

“I want them to be interested and invested while learning some aspects of business,” Mitchell said. “Having business owners be involved and guide them really made the project more hands on.”