Inside the Sequim School District kitchen are numerous cooking appliances and machinery dating back to the 1970s.
Besides basic maintenance needs, Nicole Hooker, a community lead cook that has worked in the district kitchen for 12 years, said very little has changed over the decades.
“Nothing in this kitchen has changed, it’s never been updated,” she said.
“We’re just losing things.”
Hooker explained that because a lot of the kitchen equipment is outdated the staff cannot use it, such as a griddle that doesn’t heat up on one side and was deemed unusable by the fire marshal because it did not have a fire protection system installed above it.
One of the ovens in the facility has been used since the 1970s and only has one door that opens, while a pizza maker sits idle in the kitchen because it has no power.
“We don’t have $5,000 for an oven or $10,000-$12,000 for a steamer,” said Laurie Campen, director of food services.
The district kitchen provides meals for 90 percent of the district, all of the elementary schools and Olympic Peninsula Academy.
Lindsey Kester, a production lead cook that also has worked in the kitchen for 12 years, said she used to make a lot of homemade meals from scratch, but due to lack of utilities, is forced to use foods that are already made, such as gravy and chicken noodle soup.
“It’s impossible to do what we used to,” Kester said.
Both Kester and Hooker explained that it also takes longer to cook food for the 900 elementary students the kitchen serves due to a lack of usable utilities, explaining that they have to make items in small batches and switch things in and out of the ovens.
Heidi Hietpas, executive director of finance and operations at the Sequim School District, explained that basic maintenance and operational costs of the district kitchen are covered in the district’s budget, but that bigger infrastructure costs like a new stove or a new griddle would only be covered by levy dollars.
Hietpas said operational costs include both supervision and food, while the kitchen’s budgeted revenue includes local, state and federal components.
According to documents for the 2016-2017 Sequim School District budget as of December, reports show that budgeted expenditures exceeded revenue.
Campen said if the upcoming Capital Projects Levy were to pass on Feb. 14, the district kitchen could have the funds to replace the majority of its outdated equipment and enlarge the freezer and storage space that currently holds two days worth of food, while the rest is stored at Costco.
Campen said the Sequim high school kitchen is 17 years old and some of its equipment also is starting to break down and Greywolf Elementary doesn’t have a stove.
Hietpas said new infrastructure for the district kitchen would, “expand the capabilities of the kitchen” by increasing the efficiency of food service.
