East Franklin receives equipment grant
Starting in the fall, East Franklin Junior High School students can expect to see a small change in their cafeteria that will have significant results.
Franklin County Schools Child Nutrition Program Director Robyn Bragwell has announced that East Franklin has been approved for a grant that will provide them with a new serving line in their cafeteria.
The school will receive $83,000 through the National School Lunch Program Equipment Assistance Grants.
“We received a substantial amount of the total that was awarded to Alabama. I’m pleased,” Bragwell said.
According to Ed Richardson, interim state superintendent of education, Alabama was awarded $455,583 for these grants, out of more than 60 applications received and evaluated.
East Franklin has until July 1, 2018, to use the grant money and have the project finished. Bragwell said they plan to start removing the current serving line around May 31 and have the new one in within a week to 10 days.
“The bids will be sent out soon to manufacturers. The line will be made specifically for East Franklin and will have the school colors incorporated in it,” Bragwell said.
The implementation of the school’s red and royal blue colors is an effort on the school’s part to make the serving line more kid-friendly and is part of an effort to increase participation in the lunch program.
“This new line will help us serve better meals and more options that the students like. The more we serve options that they like, the more they will want to participate,” Bragwell said.
The new serving line will offer hot and cold food wells that control the temperatures of the different foods so that they remain at a safe temperature for consumption. There will also be a self-serve section where the students can grab items for themselves like fruits, cookies and paper items like napkins. A new automatic ice machine/dispenser will also be installed.
“The current ice machine doesn’t make its own ice, so the workers have to carry buckets of water to pour in it, and it’s unsafe and uses up time that could be better spent elsewhere,” Bragwell explained.
She said she anticipates that the new line will cut maintenance, production and labor costs because there will no longer be any rusted food wells that don’t have any drainage or heating wells that occasionally don’t work.
Bragwell said this new serving line will improve the quality of the meals, the safety of the food and the energy efficiency of the system.
