The Experience

My name is John Buono, and I am one of the five producers of Project Happy Meal. I am here today to tell the story of how one little idea turned into what is now Project Happy Meal. It all started back in the early weeks of the semester when my group and I were brainstorming ideas for a group project. We were going back and forth and we began to mention the food industry...and then it hit me: McDonalds.

My father, John Buono Sr, is an owner operator of a McDonalds restaurant as well as the Co-op president for McDonalds in Rochester. My whole family is in the McDonalds business and it occurred to me that they would serve as a gold mine of information for our project; so we decided on McDonalds as the basis for it.

Once we had the foundation, the fun part was put into action: research. Usually when you think about research you think of just reading through books or browsing the web for information, but, having the family connections that I have, I was able to travel back to Rochester to interview my father. In doing this I was able to stock pile vital information for our project. I was also able to take a tour of the distribution center in Rochester and interview one of the supervisors there as well.

This was most definitely my favorite part because I was able to witness and be a part of the earlier processes that McDonalds goes through. Over all I enjoyed the project very much I hope for the next year of students who go through this project to put as much effort into it as you can because there is much you can learn from it.