Augusta students win national food contest

Four students from Augusta’s Capital Area Technical Center arrived in Chicago this weekend with a breakfast food truck concept built around a period none of them remembers firsthand. CentralMaine.com reported on May 17 that seniors Joseph Bailey, Shannyn Parrish and Allison Brann, along with junior Lizi Lord, won the national Ecolab Bites and Beats contest with “Y2Koffee,” a breakfast truck pitched around early-2000s nostalgia. Their prize was a chance to bring the concept to life at the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago. The show runs May 16-19 at McCormick Place, according to the event organizer. ### How did the Augusta team get to Chicago? Capital Area Technical Center first advanced through Maine’s ProStart competition before its students moved on to national events this spring. The Portland Press Herald reported on March 3 that the Augusta school won the Maine ProStart State Invitational and took first place in the restaurant management event, earning a trip to the National ProStart Invitational in Baltimore on April 24-26. ProStart is a National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation program for high school students in culinary arts and restaurant management. (centralmaine.com) Baltimore became the next stop in that run. CentralMaine.com reported that the Y2Koffee concept, along with a video presentation and a judged pitch, won the national Ecolab Bites and Beats competition there this spring. That victory sent the students to Chicago to operate the idea as a real truck during the restaurant industry show. (pressherald.com) ### What exactly is Y2Koffee? Y2Koffee is a breakfast food truck built around Y2K-era design and menu references. CentralMaine.com said the students chose the concept after chef Patrick Austin asked them to think about a target customer, and they landed on millennials and college-age customers looking for a “nostalgic morning.” The name tied that theme to coffee and breakfast service. (centralmaine.com) Menu ideas followed the same theme. CentralMaine.com reported that the truck’s signature item was “floppy disk French toast,” alongside a doughnut inspired by a video game and a Saturday-morning-cartoon latte. Austin told the students, according to the report, that he was the only team member who had been alive in 2000. Parrish said the group wanted the concept to appeal to millennials and college students. (centralmaine.com) ### Why was the theme unusual for this team? Joseph Bailey, Shannyn Parrish, Allison Brann and Lizi Lord are high school students who were not alive when the Y2K moment they were selling first arrived. CentralMaine.com said the team relied in part on Austin, identified in the report as a millennial, to help translate the period’s look and references into a workable brand. That included neon visuals, retro-futurist styling and food names tied to early digital culture. (centralmaine.com) Patrick Austin’s role was practical as well as creative. CentralMaine.com said he began the exercise by handing the students an imaginary food truck and having them map out how food would move through a tight workspace from start to finish. Bailey said that flow is critical in a compact truck. ### What is this contest, and how does it work? (centralmaine.com) Ecolab’s Bites and Beats contest is open to ProStart school teams registered for a 2026 state competition, according to the official rules. The contest asked teams to submit an original food truck concept, and two winning teams were to be brought to Chicago to work with professional designers on full-scale branded trucks, according to contest materials and a project summary from Storylink Creative, which described the event production. (centralmaine.com) The National Restaurant Association Show is one of the industry’s largest annual gatherings. The show’s website says more than 53,000 foodservice professionals were expected in Chicago this year, and the 2026 event runs through Tuesday, May 19. That gave the Augusta students a national trade-show audience for a concept that began as a classroom pitch. ### What happens next for the students? (sundaynightspotlight26.com) Chicago is the immediate next step. CentralMaine.com reported that the students were in the city this weekend serving food from the Y2Koffee truck to attendees at the National Restaurant Association Show. The show schedule posted by organizers lists programming at McCormick Place through May 19, with exhibit hours continuing into Tuesday afternoon. (centralmaine.com) (nrn.com)