Three of the Merced Adult School students are situated in the corner of the classroom working away. The trio has a couple minutes before they head off for their jobs so they are packaging raw materials. For the past three years Food Grade Solutions, LLC has partnered with the adult school to allow the students to package small plastic parts, bolts, washers and spacers into kits for the company. In return Food Grade Solutions has helped fund some of the field trips for the students.

 

Every student participates to some degree with the packages. They can spend the 20 minutes they are in the classroom before breakfast or 30 minutes after lunch at a station. Adult Transition Special Education teacher Brian Strong says the company has tens of thousands of pieces of raw material that gets packed, counted and sorted into packages. “They do a ton there, but there’s always more to do in that regard,” Strange said. “So we established this partnership where he brings raw materials to us and students package it.”

 

The partnership was created in part because Merced Adult School principal Steve Hobbs is cousins with James Tjerrild, who works as a managing member at Food Grade Solutions, LLC. “Steve reached out to me inquiring as to if there were projects or jobs at Food Grade Solutions, LLC that may be able to be performed by their students,” Tjerrild said. “Since we deal with thousands of small injection molded plastic parts that need to be packaged in lots of 12, we identified this as something that would be appropriate for the students in the transition program to package.”

 

Last year the class combined to pack 5,536 packages, which topped the previous year. Their goal is to complete even more this year. As of Wednesday, Nov. 5, the students have completed 2,084 packages. They keep a running total on the white board in the front of the class so the students can see the progress they make each day. After each package is completed, each student seals one of their business cards in the package so they know who completed each kit.

 

“The majority of our school days are spent out at work sites, that's the focus of our program, is the vocational part of it,” Strange said. “So this is just some time in between and that is why it is so great. We have some students who come into the program who really need to be busy all the time. That's what they want, is to be able to work all the time. So to have that over there is fantastic.”

 

It’s a win-win for Food Grade Solutions, LLC as well. “Since the transition program students take care of many of our subassembly needs, we are freed up to focus on more complex manufacturing processes, and devote more time to marketing, plus research and development,”  Tjerrild said. “Our time to ship is also reduced by their efforts, in that by having a well-stocked supply of prepackaged sub assemblies, the time it takes to fulfill an order is greatly reduced.The students, in turn, benefit from having a physical goal to accomplish, development of fine motor skills, and pride of a job well done.”

 

The partnership has helped the Merced Adult School take their students on field trips to events like a Fresno Grizzlies baseball game, the bowling alley, an Amtrak train ride to Old Town Sacramento, a trip to the pumpkin patch, a lake trip and they’ve also thrown Thanksgiving and Christmas parties at the Elks Lodge. Tjerrild says he’s happy this partnership gives him more time to see Hobbs, and Hobbs’ son Luke, who is a student at the adult school. It also gives him joy that they helped the students participate in enriching field trips and activities. “I am blessed to have the opportunity to work with and get to know the transition program students,” Tjerrild said. “Without this partnership, I would not have the opportunity to be involved in their lives.”

 

Shawn Jansen is the MUHSD Program Manager Digital Media. He can be reached at Sjansen@muhsd.org.