How a Salem Man Balances Teaching and Entrepreneurship

Edward Rolfness (left) and John Dixon (right) pose in DECA club gear in South Salem High School’s DECA boardroom. Photo taken by Lucas Westfall.

Edward Rolfness: The Man of Many Hats

Edward Rolfness is a teacher at South Salem High School. Currently, Rolfness teaches Marketing II, American Sign Language I and American Sign Language II. He has been teaching at South for eight years and once was the instructor of American Sign Language III, Introduction to Business, Applied Entrepreneurship and Public Speaking. Not only is Rolfness a teacher but he is also one of the DECA instructors for South. 

Runaway Kitchen 

Outside of working at South Rolfness also runs his own business called “Runaway Kitchen,” which is located at 3170 Commercial Street in Salem, Oregon. Hours of operation are Wednesday to Saturday 11 a.m. – 7 p.m., or while supplies last.

“For the past five years, I have owned and operated various food carts. In 2019, we [Rolfness and his wife] owned a food cart that only did desserts, specializing in Root Beer Floats. In 2020 we decided to try our hand at food and focus on smash-burgers, fries and various desserts,” Rolfness said. 

Their first date of service was June 8, 2020. The reason the business came to life was because Rolfness was trying to find a new Summer hobby. 

As a teacher, I was looking for something to spend my time on during the summer. When we decided to open the food cart in March of 2020, the pandemic had not hit yet. Once we officially ordered our trailer, the schools were shut down and everything went on pause, then the takeout-world started booming. By June of 2020, we were fully operational and we were serving meals to our community of 7,000 people,

Rolfness said.

When creating their food products, they knew they wanted to make sure they were giving their customers and community high-quality food without taking forever to make it. 

“We decided on smash burgers because they are something that cooks quickly and would allow us to offer a fast-paced quality product to customers on the go. However, we wanted to make sure the product we offered to people was of high quality. We source our meat from a local farm and grind it ourselves. The Runaway sauce we use on our burgers is scratch-made from our own recipe. The french fries are hand cut and double deep fried. Our milkshakes are made from locally sourced ingredients so that the customer gets a quality product every time,” Rolfness said. 

Challenges Rolfness Has Faced 

When it comes to balancing a busy life, Rolfness finds it challenging but is thankful for his wife and business partner, Mrs. Rolfness provides. Along with the help of his wife, he also has John Dixon, who is a teacher at South as well as his co-DECA adviser.

Handling Two Jobs 

With owning a business and being a teacher, there can be a lot to do as well having set strict priorities. 

“Sadly there are only so many hours in the day. There are times when I have to pick and choose what gets priority over the others. My teaching job always comes first and always will. The balancing act happens after 4 p.m. when I have grading, meetings and outside-of-classroom and business commitments. I often joke that if I could clone myself it would make everything easier, but no such luck with that yet,” Rolfness said. 

For Rolfness to pursue all of these things, he had to put in a lot of time and has had to deal with the stress that comes with it. 

“Aside from cashing in all of my savings to build our first food cart, it has taken countless hours of my time and has caused enormous amounts of stress. Owning your own business is not for everybody, and unlike a lot of people, I have to balance a career by also trying to make my business grow. As I have mentioned before, if it were not for my wife, our business would not have the success that it has had,” Rolfness said.

While on this journey, Rolfness has learned a couple of things. 

“I have learned that I cannot simply achieve everything that I want to. There are times I have to prioritize what I want to accomplish and how I will make everything work within the time allowed. It has also allowed me to share my business experiences with my students that are curious about the world of entrepreneurship. Having first hand experience not only helps students in the classroom, but with my other pursuits as well,” Rolfness said.