Food services starved for space

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2004 | 9:55 a.m.

When the Clark County School District built its central kitchen more than 30 years ago near the intersection of Flamingo Road and Arville Street, the plan was to have a facility that could handle the 1 million meals served annually at campus cafeterias.

In the ensuing three decades the number of students -- and the amount of school breakfasts and lunches they consume -- has grown exponentially, to more than 22 million meals during the 2003-04 academic year alone.

At a special meeting Thursday the Clark County School Board voted unanimously to have district staff begin drafting a capital improvement plan that would allocate up to $25 million for a new food services facility.

The money to pay for the projects would come from a variety of sources, including the general fund, food services and the building and sites budget, said Walt Rulffes, deputy superintendent of operations for the district.

Facing federal nutritional mandates and the School Board and community's pressure to serve healthier meals, the food services department has expanded its offerings well beyond the stereotypical steam-tray cafeteria fare. Schools now serve salads, wraps and vegetarian entrees, and many campuses offer breakfast.

All of those changes have left the district's food services department scrambling to find enough space for storage, preparation and distribution, Rulffes said.

In March the School Board approved $58.47 million in new construction projects, including $4.9 million for a police command center and close to $18 million for new headquarters for KLVX Channel 10. At the time, district staff indicated that the food services and transportation departments should be next in line for consideration, Rulffes said.

"They've been working at a real disadvantage for some time," Rulffes said. "It's very clear that their facilities need to be brought up to speed."

Over the years the district's central kitchen has been joined by a cold storage warehouse, loading dock and offices. Each addition ate up space that initially belonged to transportation. Because there isn't enough room at the Arville Street location for both cold storage and dry goods, a second warehouse was placed at Warm Springs and Industrial roads.

In order to collect the ingredients for a chicken sandwich, a delivery driver must go to Arville Street for a load of frozen patties and then drive six miles to the second warehouse for the buns. The driver would then deliver the items to the school, said Sue Hoggan, spokeswoman for the district's food services department.

"It's inconvenient and inefficient," Hoggan said. "And with gas prices what they are, the less driving required, the better."

In addition to storing supplies for cafeterias, the district's food services department delivers complete meals to 83 satellite schools that lack full cafeteria facilities. The district also added 17 high schools this year to the Federal School Lunch Program, which provides free and reduced-priced meals to students from low-income families. In the past the program has been limited to elementary and middle schools.

"Anytime you add schools to the (national) program you have to anticipate that more kids are going to be eating," Hoggan said. "We don't ever want to reach the point where our lack of facilities keeps us from getting food to the students who need it."