Hello, my name is Travis Hester, and I’m the Founder/ President of Eat My Catfish. Part of our mission is to develop the future leaders of our communities. We believe this program is just one way we can do this. After we were heavily impacted by the March 31st tornado, we realized the more we gave back, the more we felt alive again. If you don’t know much about our food truck to success story you can find it here and if you would like to know more about our rebound from the tragic events of 2023 here is a link.
More about the crawfish show and tell program – I made a random social media post on April 11th of last year asking if anyone knew a science teacher who would be interested and within hours I could have booked 20 schools. Every visit was 45 minutes of engaging excitement! Their teachers had taught them some about crawfish before we arrived so they were in a great spot with their knowledge and interest level. We engaged the kids, then let them all hold one for about 5-10 minutes, then everyone sat back down and we spoke for another few minutes before letting whomever wanted to eat one do so. All said and done it was right at 45 minutes.
Our goal this year is to get in front of 2,500 Arkansas students to talk about crawfish facts, the farming and distribution process, and how we got started doing it out of a food truck when I was only 24 years old.
What you’ll provide for your students: hand sanitizer, some sanitizer wipes for the desks, and a trash bag to dispose of any shells. We also ask that you print the front and back Crawfish Ambassador Certificate beforehand to give out at the end.
What we provide your students: live crawfish to hold and show, cooked crawfish to try, a uniquely engaging 45-minute show that will hit on anatomy and biology, animal characteristics and adaptations, and economics including farm to table, production, and consumption. All students will also receive a card for a free kids meal at one of our locations.