Warren Street Elementary is no stranger to hands-on food education and culinary creativity in the classroom. Now, the school’s cafeteria has a full-service kitchen to match.
To celebrate the launch of Warren Street’s new kitchen on Friday, Nov. 13, Cook Manager Angelica Rincon and her team hosted a “Fast-Scratch New York State Pizza Party,” kicking off a weekly Pizza Friday tradition and inviting students to act as official taste-testers by voting thumbs-up or “nay” on scratch-made pizzas crafted from regional ingredients.
Thanks to a donation from New York state food specialists Comfort Foods Distribution, today’s celebration menu showcased regional agriculture:
- Fresh-baked NYS pizza: Made in-house using whole-grain crust and cheese from Argyle Farms, topped with a kid-friendly tomato sauce packed with vitamins A and C and fiber from Casa Visco in Schenectady.
- Local sides and treats: Apples grown in Johnstown at Rogers Family Orchards, Peterson Farms applesauce and slushies made from 100% New York state grape juice with zero added sugar.
Fresh Out of the Oven
Until now, Warren Street did not have a full-service kitchen on site. To serve hot lunch the food services staff prepared meals at the high school, transported them in insulated warmers and served students from a portable line outside the kitchen, with all the dishwashing handled back at the high school at the end of the day.
“This isn’t just new equipment. This is new, new,” Rincon said. “Before, I had to run back and forth and try to guess exact portions because if we ran short, I couldn’t just pop more in the oven. Now, everything is fresh right out of the oven.”
Behind the scenes, the renovation involved major plumbing and electrical upgrades. Crews cut out a wide serving window where a solid wall once stood, added a pass-through dish window and installed dedicated produce-washing, dishwashing and handwashing stations. Inside, the team is cooking with an industrial Vulcan oven and a Rational iCombi Pro, an energy-efficient oven, air fryer and dehydrator that self-cleans. The smart oven can even be programmed to play festive holiday jingles when the timer goes off.
A Full-Service Kitchen Upgrade
The Warren Street upgrade follows a similar kitchen renovation recently completed at Pleasant Avenue Elementary. Funded through a voter-approved capital project with no additional tax burden to taxpayers and paid for in cash, the work began late last spring and is scheduled to fully close out at the end of December, when final installations including a new serving line, dishwasher hookups and new cafeteria tables for both Warren Street and Pleasant Avenue are completed to enhance the dining and social space for students.
“Investing in full-service kitchens at Warren Street and Pleasant Avenue gives our food-service teams the infrastructure to build on the important work already underway through AgriQuest and our partnerships with New York farmers and producers,” Superintendent Alicia D. Koster said. “With the ability to prepare fresh meals on-site, our staff can expand the use of local ingredients and strengthen the connection between what students learn about food and what they experience in the cafeteria.”
“Not Your Mom’s School Lunch”
While the district has already made strides sourcing fresh New York ingredients and is on track with Cornell Cooperative Extension to hit the New York State 30% Initiative, Food Services Director Simone Bodman said having full-service kitchens on-site lets the team cook those ingredients to their highest standard.
More importantly, she wants families to know how much care and nutrition goes into every tray.
“This is not your mom’s school lunch,” Bodman said. “Everything we serve meets strict child nutrition limits for added sugar, and all of our meals are low sodium or no-salt added. Even our baked cookies are specially formulated for school nutrition and our slushies are simply 100% New York state grape juice with zero added sugar.”
Bodman views elementary school lunch as a critical window to shape lifelong habits. Her goal is to introduce students to diverse, fresh foods before they reach high school. Menu items include crunchy kale salad with homemade dill ranch, couscous, chickpea stew and heirloom watermelon radishes grown in the Hudson Valley.
“We’re exposing them to as many fruits, vegetables and different foods as possible so that by the time they’re adults, they have a full palate, know how to eat properly and know how to cook,” Bodman said.
Every Student Included
One of Rincon’s proudest moments during the kitchen launch was making sure no child felt left out.
By reviewing student health reports ahead of time, the Warren Street team prepares dedicated allergy-friendly meals alongside the main menu. During the pizza party, Rincon baked fresh gluten-free cauliflower crust pizzas for two students with gluten sensitivities. The kitchen also stocks gluten-free buns, bread and breaded chicken, uses SunButter sandwiches for peanut-free safety and preps dairy-free options whenever a student asks in the morning.
“Kids with allergies shouldn’t just be stuck with a cold salad or feel left out,” Rincon said. “They get the same hot lunch experience as everyone else.”
From Classroom Grow Towers to Zero Waste
The kitchen launch also deepens a partnership between the cafeteria and the classroom. For the upcoming Thanksgiving lunch, Bodman is harvesting fresh parsley and chives from the school’s indoor grow towers to fold into herb-butter mashed potatoes served alongside oven-roasted fresh turkey breasts seasoned with sage, thyme and rosemary.
“This investment reflects the coherence at the heart of our Portraits in Practice strategic plan, aligning our facilities, instruction, food service and community partnerships around student needs,” Koster said. “Classroom grow towers and the Charlie Cart (a mobile classroom kitchen) help children explore how food is grown and prepared, and our kitchens reinforce that learning through the meals we serve. Together, these experiences support student wellness, encourage healthy habits early and bring science, nutrition and sustainability to life. Our responsibility as leaders is to provide the resources that allow this work to grow and become a lasting part of our students’ education.”
Sustainability is built into the operation as well. Clean vegetable trimmings, such as carrot and potato ends, are roasted or air-fried in the iCombi Pro rather than thrown away, and excess whole produce is donated to the school’s Backpack Program to support local families. Warren Street’s old milk cooler will also be donated to the Backpack Program once the kitchen’s new countertop milk cooler arrives.
“With food costs so high right now, we want to make sure we use every ingredient all the way to the end,” Bodman said.
By next school year, Bodman plans to partner with Capital Region BOCES chefs and Cornell Cooperative Extension to train staff in “full-scratch” cooking — making tomato, cheese and Alfredo sauces from scratch. For now, the biggest win is visible on the students’ faces as they walk through the new serving line.
“The kids are so happy,” Rincon said. “I’m thrilled to finally be in this kitchen, and watching them enjoy hot, fresh meals right out of the oven makes all the difference.”