Benjamin Franklin once said "Involve me and I learn."  That's fast become the motto behind a unique program at an Ottawa high school aimed at preparing special needs kids for life after school. It started off as a way to feed a hungry population but it turned into a way to feed the minds and souls of this group of kids.  They're preparing meals and that is preparing them for life on their own.

It's a field trip of a different kind as the four students and two educational assistants leave Lester B. Pearson in Ottawa’s east end. The group is off to buy groceries for the school's breakfast program; a necessary task that has turned into a valuable learning experience.

“Got your pass?” asks Kristine Coates, one of the EA’s, as they board an OC Transpo bus outside the school. Three times a week, these special needs students travel by city bus with lists and menus in hand to grocery stores around the neighborhood, filling their carts with food and their minds with life skills.

“We are learning where everything is and where to get it,” says 18-year-old Amanda Deyo, as she looks for pita wraps at the Costco store on Innes Road.

From picking pineapples to riding public transit, it is all part of a grander scheme to empower these young people.

“So I can learn how to cook by myself and hopefully do things by myself,” says 17-year-old Sly Thibault.

And it all came about in a matter of fact way. 

The school has a large breakfast program, feeding some 140 students a day.  That takes a lot of preparing.  It also has several special needs students who need help preparing for life after school.  

So, the idea was born to combine the two.

“They are learning skills they can't learn in a classroom,” says Educational Assistant Rachel Sheffield and Coates partner in the program, “that will follow them through their lives hopefully and provide some help in getting the independence they need, even if it's just making a peanut butter sandwich.”

“They’re learning budgeting, to take public transportation, about nutrition, and about preparing their food,” says Coates, as she teaches 19-year-old Ali Alamed math while measuring orange juice.

“How many are we supposed to put in?” she asks.  “Three,” answers Alamed, “so we need two more.”

For most of them, it is the first time they have held a knife or done the dishes. It has encouraged them to dream big.

“It helps me when I grow up,” says Alamed, “maybe to get married.”

These students can only attend high school until they are 21 years old.  But the hope is that those every day skills they are learning  will mean every day closer to an independent life.