This story has been updated.

Walk into the Big Bear's Bus Café and you're not only standing inside an earth-friendly, mobile restaurant, but you're also standing inside what feels like home to Jeremiah Luce, 32.

That's because at one time, a school bus was Luce's home.

When Luce was 20, he and his friends converted a school bus into a recreational vehicle and traveled across the United States for a year.

"I guess it's like going back to my roots," said the one-time Carroll County resident who now lives in Glenville, Pa.

Thankfully, he has "a really cool wife and cool kids" who supported his idea to launch an "earth-friendly bus/café" -- the bus runs on vegetable oil and also taps solar energy -- after he was laid off in September 2008 as a construction company project manager.

Anna Luce, 29, aka the "really cool wife," is a 1997 Westminster High School graduate and also teaches Latin at Christiana Homeschool Academy in Westminster, where the couple's two daughters attend.

"I'm up for an adventure," she said. "I rather do it and fail rather than never try."

Anna Luce is a licensed kitchen manager and has experience working at Olive Garden restaurants.

These days, she's in charge of a Big Bear menu that includes her own roasted chicken panini creations, including the chef's favorite Bikini Panini featuring mango chutney, sautéed onions, mozzarella cheese, curry and cayenne.

The Luces will serve their dishes in their socially conscious café at the second annual Maryland Heartland Sustainable Living Fair on Saturday, May 23, at the Carroll County Farm Museum, 500 S. Center St., Westminster.

The Big Bear's Bus Café also serves up quesadillas, beef and veggie hot dogs, smoothies, "fair trade" coffee and root beer floats. Fair trade coffee is where money for the beans and coffee goes back to the farmers and cooperatives in their respective countries.

Jeremiah Luce said the idea of transforming a bus into a rolling diner just kind of all came together.

After all, he reasoned, his wife makes good sandwiches, and he always wanted a bus that runs on vegetable oil.

"I wanted to have a business that I enjoyed doing, and I wanted a business where I could give back," Luce said last week, sitting beneath the shade provided by his fabric awning on the cream-colored bus.

The bus has just about everything one needs to sustain, and sustain the environment.

"We want to be earth-friendly, and we want to be human friendly," he said.

The bus runs on vegetable oil and gets about 9 to 10 miles per gallon. (The bus starts and stops with the help of diesel fuel, and in between a flip of a switch kicks in the veggie oil.)

"When I'm running on vegetable oil, it's more earth-friendly than a Prius," he said.

"It actually smells like Burger King when you're stopped at a stop light."

Which is good for business, one would guess.

Jeremiah also has a pumping system to collect used grease from restaurants and wants to work with restaurant owners to take their used vegetable or peanut oil for free to help fuel the bus.

The Luces also have a solar panel on the roof that charges the lights, sound system, water pumps and other devices.

Being environmentally friendly means a lot to Jeremiah. He said he didn't want Big Bear's Bus to be like companies where profit drives everything.

"I probably wouldn't be labeled as a major environmentalist, but at the same time I'm concerned with (the environment), and if I can roll down the road using vegetable oil that doesn't do anything to our environment, and if I can use the sun to power things on my bus, then those things are pluses to me," he said.

And he says the café is about giving back. For every food item sold, the couple donates money to Iris Ministries to help feed children in Third World countries.

That culture of giving back to the environment and to others is thanks to his devotion of faith.

"I struggle with connecting with what is understood in being a Christian today, but I believe in Jesus Christ and I really love his teachings," he said. "I look at the way He lived and it's beautiful to me, and that's definitely an inspiration."

Visitors to next weekend's Maryland Heartland Sustainable Living Fair will also find a touch of faith in the café's seats.

They are refinished 100-year-old walnut church pews from a Baltimore city church that that discarded them, Jeremiah said.

In addition to the sustainable features, the Luces' personalities are evident throughout the bus. A southwestern carpet theme on the steps hints to the couple's time in El Paso -- where their friends dubbed Jeremiah "Oso Grande" ... or Big Bear.

An interior decor of vinyl records gives the bus a classic diner feel and reflects the love of music the Luces share. Even in the onboard rest room, John Denver and other musician's album covers greet you.

If Big Bear's Bus proves to be a success, the Luces envision handing it off to a manager -- then buying a double-decker bus and doing it all over again.

The Luces want to spend time globetrotting, but for now they'll stick to Carroll and Baltimore counties and will rent the bus out for parties. Next summer, though, they'd like to do more festivals and concerts across the country.

For details on the Big Bear's Bus Café, call 443-340-4519, go to www.bigbearsbuscafe.com or visit them at the Saturday, May 23, Maryland Heartland Sustainable Living Fair in Westminster.

Sustainable Living Fair

The Maryland Heartland Sustainable Living Fair will run 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, May 23 at the Carroll County Farm Museum in Westminster.

The nonprofit fair is sponsored in part by the Maryland Sierra Club Catoctin Group and endorsed by the Carroll County Environmental Advisory Council.

About 70 vendors will be on hand, featuring information, products and demonstrations on renewable energy, green building, sustainable agriculture, sustainable lifestyle, natural food and green advocacy.

The fair will also feature children's activities from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Food vendors will also be on hand, including organic offerings and environmentally conscious business such as the Big Bear Bus Café.

Cost: Ages 16 and younger are free; Ages 17 to 59 are $5; seniors, students and bicyclists are $3

Visit www.sustainablelivingmd.org.

Entertainment

9:30 to 10:15 a.m., Sandra Dean Trio

10:15 to 11 a.m., Bill Euler

11:15 a.m. to noon, Eddie and Shelly

1 to 1:45 p.m., Chasmo & Cassandra

2 to 2:45 p.m., Bucky's Brother

2:45 to 3:30 p.m., Groovequest

3:30 to 4:30 p.m., Twine Time

Also, Strings on Wings will perform throughout the day.

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