How a professional chef and former leader of Hy-Vee found their ways into the classroom
By Grace King – The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa (TNS)
Dec. 27—The Gazette offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
Prairie High School culinary teacher Frank Bowman delights in teaching his students the basics like the patience of making a grilled cheese sandwich or the ease of making mac and cheese from scratch.
“Have good bread, good cheese and patience, and you will make the best grilled cheese you’ve ever had,” Bowman said. “Making mac and cheese using pasta, butter, flour, milk and cheese — five ingredients, nothing else — takes the same amount of time as a box of Kraft mac and cheese.”
Bowman, 53, is one example of educators across the state who didn’t begin their career teaching. He first was a chef and restaurant owner before finding his way almost three years ago into the classroom.
In the Linn-Mar Community School District, Dave Blum, 47, is teaching students what it means to manage a store. Looking for a career change after the COVID-19 pandemic, the former Hy-Vee regional vice president became a paraeducator about two years ago.
“The great thing for me is I left the best job in the world, and I found one that’s equally the best job in the world,” Blum said.
Since beginning at Boulder Peak Intermediate School in Marion in the fall of 2022, Blum has helped open a “store” called the BP Ticket Tree shop. Students can bring tickets they’ve earned for going “above and beyond” to “purchase” things like fidget toys, a bag of chips or school supplies.
All the items in the store have been donated by families. Blum estimates they’ve brought in at least $1,000 in donated items this school year. The store is open a couple mornings a week before school starts. It is operated by about a dozen student volunteers who apply for positions in the store.
“As I was hiring at Hy-Vee, the things I would look for is honesty, integrity, kindness, compassion. Those are the things I’m trying to instill in these kids,” Blum said.
From chef to high school teacher
As a former restaurant owner, Bowman saw an opportunity to teach the next generation of chefs and food service workers through Prairie High’s new Culinary Arts Pathway.
Bowman graduated from the College Community School District in 1990. He went to Kirkwood Community College and kind of floundered, trying on different career paths like sports trainer and nurse. When he eventually paused to think about what he was good at and enjoyed, he landed on cooking.
During his career, Bowman owned Linn Street Cafe in Iowa City, which closed in 2015, and Bistro on First in Cedar Rapids, which operated from 2002 to 2015.
He left the restaurant business altogether in 2015, working for six years for the Sixth Judicial Department of Correctional Services. It was his first time working a 9-5, Monday-Friday job.
“It just wasn’t truly a fit for me,” he said.
That’s when he came across an opening for a culinary teacher for the College Community School District in 2022. Now, Bowman is teaching on a Career and Technical Education Authorization for his years of experience as a chef and working toward a teaching license.
Bowman sees himself retiring from teaching when he’s 65 after about a 15-year teaching career.
Launching the Culinary Arts Pathway
The College Community district is growing the Culinary Arts Pathway with Bowman’s leadership. An industrial kitchen was completed at the 9th Grade Center — adjacent to Prairie High School — where Bowman will begin teaching 9-12th graders enrolled in cooking classes in January.
In fall 2025, the district will launch a class called ProStart — a career and technical education program, through the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation, to teach high school students culinary skills and restaurant management principles, as well as communication, teamwork, professionalism and time management skills.
ProStart likely will be a four-semester program — over about two years — and will graduate students with an industry-recognized certificate in basic management and culinary skills considered critical to success by restaurant industry leaders.
Students in ProStart also will be required to complete 400 mentored hours, according to the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation. Bowman is looking for community partners where students can gain hands-on experience in the industry.
He has dreams of the culinary students making food that would be sold at concession stands at athletic events and even opening their own restaurant with limited hours.
Bowman imagines a student-based restaurant open a couple days a week. Customers would be required to have a reservation and could get a “really nice lunch that’s professionally prepared” at cost — for example, $4 for a soup, salad and sandwich.
One of Bowman’s greatest joys as he’s teaching is hearing students say, “This is easy.”
“Yes, it can be easy if you have the basic skills and knowledge.” he said. “Cooking can be easy if you have that foundation established.”
From grocery stores to the classroom
Blum worked for Hy-Vee for almost 30 years, starting by bagging groceries when he was 16.
After graduating high school, Blum began college at Morningside University in Sioux City to study elementary education. He was inspired to the profession by his own teachers in the Cherokee Community Schools in Northwest Iowa.
“They really helped form who I am. There was a lot of tough love, a lot of life lessons. I knew (teaching) was something I would really like and be good at,” Blum said.
But after three semesters in college, Blum took a full-time job with Hy-Vee and left school. Throughout his career with the grocery store chain, he moved 15 times, worked as store director in various cities and states and eventually became a regional vice president of the company.
He eventually moved to the Cedar Rapids area in 2013 to be closer to family and stayed here when he left from Hy-Vee in 2022.
“I knew at that point I had accomplished my dreams. They had given me everything I wanted out of it. I gave 110 percent every day, and I knew this was a good time for me to explore other passions,” Blum said.
That’s when a friend encouraged him to work for a school — whether that be cooking school meals or “swinging a mop,” Blum said.
He saw an opening in the Linn-Mar Community School District. His interview with the principal at Boulder Peak Intermediate was his first interview in 30 years, he said.
“What sold me is the culture,” Blum said. “It was very much like the culture I had come from — that ‘helpful smile in every aisle.'”
During his time at Hy-Vee, Blum helped mentor and teach hundreds of employees — many of them teenagers working their first job. “Every day, I would train, counsel, suggest and model behavior,” Blum said.
Blum received training through Grant Wood Area Education Agency — which delivers educational services to students and educators in a seven-county region — to be a paraeducator or student support associate.
Blum also earned a paraprofessional certificate through Kirkwood Community College, got a substitute authorization to substitute teach and a coaching certificate to coach seventh- and eighth-grade cross-country at Oak Ridge Middle School in Marion.
“How can I consistently learn and better myself, so I can be more effective with the kiddos? That’s the most important thing is their outcome and who they’re becoming,” Blum said.
Blum completed a bachelor’s degree in educational studies in elementary education through Western Governor’s University in 2023, and now is working toward his master’s degree in elementary education and student teaching.
But his goal isn’t to be a teacher.
“I love being an associate and helping kids one-on-one,” Blum said. “Next year, could I have my own classroom? Maybe. But I also think I would be just as happy continuing in the associate role. I really like that dynamic with the kids and building those relationships.”
Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com
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