Feeding the masses

JOEL DAVIDSON/Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - The Mat-Su Borough School District is moving forward with plans for a new high-tech nutritional services center in Palmer. The future center, equipped with added conveyor belt movements and greatly increased storage capacity, will replace the current central kitchen, which is overworked and quickly becoming outdated.

The current center, located at Iditarod Elementary School, churns out about 6,000 meals every school day, but as the district grows, so does the demand for more food.

Nutrition Services supervisor Kathy Walker said the new facility should have a more efficient layout, allowing workers to put out more product in less time. Added storage will be another major improvement because larger orders will allow the district to get more for its money.

Bob Bechtold, project manager for the Mat-Su Borough, said food ingredients will be stored near the bakery, unlike the current operation, in which food is often stored in other rooms or connexes.

"There will be less bending over and back movement," Bechtold said. "It should bring a smile on the faces of the workers."

The new center will also have a large freezer and refrigerated space inside the building as well as a large dry-storage area.

Gary Wolf is the owner of Wolf Architecture, a company that recently finished the initial schematic design of the new building. In developing the building design, Wolf said one of the big challenges was trying to make the building visually attractive, while using a limited budget.

"Trying to make an industrial building look like something more than a box is always a challenge," he said. "But I think we've done that."

Wolf said he expects the final design to be complete and ready to go to bid by this June.

Bechtold estimated that the roughly $12-million center should be complete and ready to go by August 2006. Sixty percent of the project is funded by state capital dollars, with the rest coming from local borough bonds passed in 2003.

The borough is also trying to secure federal money for a food-processing center, which would be attached to the nutritional services center. Initial design plans have already been completed for a processing center that would allow raw fruits and vegetables to be frozen or turned into juice and easily transported next door to the school district's central kitchen.

One goal of the food-processing center is to provide locally grown produce for the school district.

"It's good for the economy, agriculture and the kids," said borough manager Marian Romano. "Our focus will be the school district but [the food processing center] would serve other areas like the military and other school districts."

Contact Joel Davidson at joel.davidson@frontiersman.com.