Libby School District kitchen opens
<p>Assistant cook Charlene Snyder explains the inner workings of the new thermal oven Monday morning in the district's brand new kitchen.</p>
Students of the Libby public schools were fed the first meal prepared in the school district’s new kitchen Monday. The kitchen, located at Asa Wood School, will supply meals to all three Libby public schools every school day.
Ellen Mills, the nutrition manager for the schools, said the goal is to make sure the students all have a healthy meal and to save money for the district.
“Hopefully, we’ll be able to save some money,” she said. “Just bringing it home and having control is great, but with this we can use quantities to make our food better and save money.”
The district staff will be preparing approximately 450 meals each day and then delivering the meals to Libby Elementary, Libby Middle-High School and the Central School. The schools, Mills said, have areas set up for the kids to eat their meals.
Mills said she wanted to recognize the work of the school’s former caterer, Henry’s Restaurant.
“Terry and his crew over at Henry’s did an awesome job for us,” she said. “They hung in with us right up to the end and we’re going to miss them.”
The kitchen was built at a cost of almost $300,000, but school officials hope the savings in the preparation and delivery costs will eventually offset the initial investment. The school spent $520,470 on food in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2013 and $493,702 in the year ending June 30, 2014.