Introducing AUSD’s New Central Kitchen

ELTON HO
Staff Writer

A new central kitchen facility began its operation at the start of this school year to serve Alhambra Unified School District (AUSD) high schools. Alhambra High, Century High, Mark Keppel High, and San Gabriel High will now be provided with meals from a uniform source rather than each having its own production.

According to Vivien Watts, executive director of AUSD’s Food and Nutrition Services Department, the district had to make a decision between upgrading all of the existing individual kitchens or investing in a centralized kitchen facility, and eventually settled on the central kitchen. Benefits of this change include “production consistency, better quality control [and] savings on inventories and logistics.

The establishment of the new kitchen will affect AHS in a variety of ways. As there will no longer be an on-site production of food, the cafeteria staff instead will do simple preparation of shipped meal items. As a result, the “pizza line”, the lunch line leading into the cafeteria from the left, has been cut, as AHS no longer produces its own pizza. There are some changes in the menu as well. For example, the addition of sushi platters was designed to cater to students’ tastes.

Future goals of the district’s Food and Nutrition Services Department include to “be able to make more things from scratch, use more fresh fruit and vegetables and to extend [the] catering program,” Watts said. The department also plans to extend the central kitchen’s service to the rest of the schools in the district.

Despite the department’s efforts, AHS’ lunch meals are not looked upon particularly well by students. Out of 673 students surveyed, 384 students, a majority, rated the school lunch as a 1 or 2 on a scale of 1-5, while only 56 students gave a 4 or 5.

“I [would] like it if they used fresh ingredient[s] to make a meal for us,” said sophomore Leslie La.

Although the food served by AHS will not be prepared on location anymore, Watts says that the central production kitchen will be able to produce quality foods with its standardized recipes and procedures.