Sun staff
Batavia Middle School received a National School Lunch Program Equipment Assistance Grant to purchase a new combination oven for the school’s cafeteria.
The funding, which was awarded by the Department of Education’s Office for Child Nutrition on Feb. 3, will give the school up to $25,000 to replace its existing 30-year-old oven.
Combination ovens can act as either a convection oven or as a steamer, which allows cafeterias to quickly cook meats, casseroles and vegetables, all from the same unit. Some combination ovens can heat and steam at the same time, which retain the moisture in foods that are prone to drying out in the oven.
Grant officials received 149 grant applications; Batavia Middle was one of 74 recipients to receive funding.
Kim Gregory, food service director for Batavia Local School District, submitted the school’s grant application in December.
“I was hopeful,” she said. “And, I was extremely excited to hear of our funding award.”
She added, “It was such a wonderful feeling.”
One of the goals of the grant funding is to help schools finance unfunded capital equipment, which in turn will help schools to serve healthier meals, meet nutritional standards, improve food safety and expand accessibility to food services, according to a press release.
“You try to make your food service fund support itself, but in reality, it’s difficult to do that,” said Michael Ashmore, treasurer for the school district. “The rising costs of providing and producing food, while at the same time keeping food costs down for customers, makes it even more challenging to purchase capital equipment.”
He added, “A grant like this is very, very helpful.”
High-needs schools, where more than half of enrolled students are eligible for free or reduced price meals, received funding priority, according to a press release.
“One criteria was to ensure higher poverty schools had the equipment to make sure they can serve high quality meals,” said Bridget Hires, assistant director for the Office for Child Nutrition.
Forty-nine percent of students in the school district receive free or reduced- price meals, according to Asmore.
The school’s commitment to serving nutritious meals “from scratch” was another reason they were selected to receive the funding, according to Hires.
“The overall grant has criteria in it that reflects the things the school district was asking for,” she said. “We’re excited to fund their project, and the combination oven element is very exciting.”
The school’s current oven has required many repairs, which includes a lot of downtime, accord-ing to Gregory.
“It’s a very temperamental piece of equipment,” said Gregory. “Some days it ran, and some days it didn’t. Nonetheless, we were not able to run at full efficiency or capacity.”
She added, “We are definitely in need of upgrading that piece of equipment, and having this new oven will enable us to use our time more efficiently and effectively.”
Gregory expects the quality and appearance of the school’s food to improve with the new oven.
“We are all striving for healthier meals in schools,” she said, “The combination steam feature will allow us to steam our frozen veggies, which will help them retain more nutrition than boiling them on the stove.”
Gregory is hopeful that the new oven will be purchased and installed within 60 days. Currently, the school district is waiting to receive the official award letter. Once it is received, Gregory will present the school board with her purchase recommendation and the board will solicit bids to choose the best value.
“It’s very exciting for the students of Batavia Middle School,” Gregory said. “I’m happy we’ll be able to improve the equipment for them.”
She added, “There was definitely a need there, and applying for the grant was the best way I could find to continuously improve and provide better equipment for the students at the school.”