Would you eat crickets?

Emily Merritt, reporter|October 25, 2019

Megan Diel (12) and Alexis Perulfi (12) tries the cricket powder at the COE presentation.

A local innovator visited business students to speak about her business and how she hopes that her product will not “bug” people anymore.

On Oct. 23, business students in Ms. Amy Clark’s first and second hour classes had an interesting opportunity to try cricket powder on a cracker. Sarah Schlafly, the CEO of Mighty Cricket, has around 50 restaurants in the Saint Louis area trying out her new challenge, the Mighty Cricket Challenge.

The challenge lasts the whole month of October. The point of the challenge is to get people comfortable with eating insects. To complete the challenge participants need to order a special dish with cricket powder on it from one of the restaurants participating.

After people get their dish, they take a picture with it and use the hashtag #CricketChallenge. By doing this, they receive the opportunity to win gift cards and other prizes. After hearing about this challenge, Ms. Clark contacted Ms. Schlafly and invited her to come to Oakville and introduce her business to the students.

“The presentation was really interesting,” said Hannah Brennan (12). “When buying the cricket powder, you can mix it with other seasonings to make it tastier or even use it as a topping on ice cream and frozen yogurt.”

The class period prior to the visit, students came up with questions to ask Ms. Schlafly. These questions related to the production, promotion, and the parts of her business. The questions that were written were then asked after Ms. Schlafly’s presentation.

“I thought it was going to be actually very disgusting at first,” said Ethan Huegerich (12). “But after her presentation, she convinced me that it was at least worth a shot.”

After learning about Mighty Cricket and the business aspects of the company, students had the chance to try out the cricket powder.

“The cricket powder itself really didn’t taste like much, which was amazing,” said Ben Majubasic (12). “It was an easy way to add some protein to a quick snack.”