When you used to walk into the old foods room in Potosi Highschool, you felt like you just wandered into a 1970’s sitcom kitchen. The ugly green floors were coated with light dirt that never seemed to go away. The white stoves were beginning to stain yellow, and the wooden cabinets' dark brown color was fading. The counters were scattered with miscellaneous kitchen supplies.Not to mention there was still asbestos in the floor. It was obvious that the foods room needed to be remodeled.
The first step in remodeling it was getting everything out of the room. The cabinets had to be taken down and a lot of the old equipment had to be thrown out. Once they got the room stripped down to nothing they realized how much work had to actually be done ”It was hard to visualize how we could change that room until everything was out of it. Once it was gutted, we were able to really visualize how we could make the room much more functional for the Food Science class, as well as having it be a functional classroom for other teachers, and still have room for the concession stand,” said Food Science teacher Mrs. Burton.
The next step was planning the layout. The main focus of remodeling the foods room was to have the best layout to fit the most students in the safest way possible. The old layout of the room split the kitchen area into two halves that were not equal in size. Those two halves were split by an island piece that limited student movement and sharing of items during class. There was a fifth sink and a fifth stove that were not functional and just took up extra space that was needed. The cabinets needed to be reworked to be able to house some of the larger supplies like the large mixers and food dehydrators. “When we were thinking about the cabinetry, we wanted to eliminate as much unused space as possible, while ensuring that we had ample storage.”
Once the layout was all figured out, they were able to decide on the cabinets, countertops, and other appliances. They decided on making everything grey to keep it a neutral color. “We wanted to choose colors that wouldn’t go out of style. And with the amount of usage that room gets, we wanted items that would last and not show wear and tear. The cabinets are easy to wipe clean as needed, and the dark stainless steel appliances will not show the fingerprints that regular stainless steel appliances would.” The next and last step to the remodeling process was to install everything. That process involved putting in the cabinetry, sinks, appliances, countertops, and blinds on the windows. Once all the items were here, it took about two weeks to install everything. When the room officially opened for use, the food science class was finally able to use a nice, modern, fully functioning kitchen.