Kitchen and cafeteria renovation gives Dryden Elementary students a fresh take on school lunch

Students at Dryden Elementary School in Dryden, New York have a brand new space to enjoy their meals. The school’s new kitchen and cafeteria opened earlier this school year after months of renovation. 

The decision to renovate the space came after an evaluation of the Dryden Central School District’s nutrition program by the Chef Ann Foundation as part of nonprofit’s School Food Reboot program, which is helping Dryden and five other districts in Tompkins County New York increase their scratch-cooking and local sourcing. 

The evaluation found that the space was in dire need of an update. 

“It was extremely outdated,” says Food Service Director Megan Munson. “The whole system itself was outdated. A lot of equipment was non-operational, non-functional.”

Today, however, outdated would be one of the last words you would use to describe the space, which features new kitchen equipment, seating, a salad bar and more. 

Relying on collaboration 

The renovation involved a complete gutting of the cafeteria and kitchen “right down the studs,” says Munson. 

To allow the contractors to complete their work with minimal interruption, the team transitioned to a temporary feeding setup last spring. Moving meal service for the 111 students at the school wasn’t easy, Munson adds, but was doable with cooperation between the districts administration team and the foodservice department. 

While the temporary feeding location had space to serve students, it didn’t have a kitchen to prepare the food, so the meals had to be brought in.

“We shipped [all the food] from our main production kitchen at the middle school/high school down to the elementary school, making several runs a day,” says Munson. 

The team operated like this until the start of this school year when it transitioned to delivering meals to classrooms after the renovation got delayed. 

“[The renovation] was supposed to be ready at the beginning of this school year, in September, however, as it goes with most projects, we had a few hiccups,” says Munson. 

The last-minute change up was challenging as well, Munson admits, but they made it work just as they did in the spring through collaboration.

“We got through with all the help of everyone in the district,” says Munson. 

The new salad bar is at students' eye level so they can see their food and serve themselves easier.

Making the most of the new space 

While there were some initial delays, the new space is now open for business, and already, staff and students are reaping the benefits. 

The nutrition team currently operates on a six-week cycle menu that includes scratch-made items. Before the renovation, staff often had to start preparing meals early in the morning due to the old equipment not being as efficient, Munson says. With the new kitchen, the team is able to do more cook-to-order meals of a higher quality.  

While the team loves all the new updates to the kitchen, their favorite addition is the new oven which is fully programmable and offers a wide range of pre-set functions that the district's chef was able to customize. 

“It's pretty amazing,” says Munson. “And it really shrinks the cook times, and again, as far as efficiencies, the staff can go right in, they click the cheese pizza, and it's a pre-set style, so it's always cooked the same. It's very standardized.”

The cafeteria also received a makeover. It now has the school’s mascot, a lion, on the floor and the seating comes out of the wall to allow for easy storage.  

“Storage is always an issue in most places,” says Munson. 

A new salad bar, bulk milk dispenser, hotline and coolers round out the revamped front-of-house space. The new additions are all at students’ height to allow them to have easy access to their food. 

“Students eat with their eyes, as we all do,” says Munson. “So, it's really nice now that the students can actually see the food items.”

Students have been loving the new space so far, Munson says, and she’s excited with help from the Chef Ann Foundation and the School Food Reboot program. 

“It's great to see the kids get excited about school food, to get excited to see what's on the salad bar today, working on building the rainbows, making their plates as colorful as they can with all the fruits and vegetables that we're offering daily,” she says.