LAKEHURST – After months of work, a ribbon cutting ceremony was held to christen the new kitchen and the addition of the new roof for the Lakehurst Elementary School.
School District Business Administrator Joe Firetto said the district recently “hired our new Food Service Management Company, Pomptonian Foods and the roof was is being completed with minor detailing and touchups afterward.”
The roof construction was done by Laumar Roofing Company and that project is still ongoing, but set to complete in mid to late October (weather permitting).
Firetto said, “Straight Edge Construction (Manasquan) is the company who constructed our kitchen space and that project reached completion in the last week of August.”
The projects were approved by borough residents voting to approve a $3 million referendum last November that covered the cost of the projects. The roof is just under $2 million and the kitchen is roughly $650,000.
Firetto explained that the remaining funds are appropriated to professional service fees related to the implementation and execution of such projects. “At this time, we anticipate that the projects will be completed within budget.”
“This referendum qualified and was approved for state assistance of 72.9% of the requested funds. We are grateful and appreciative of their support not just for approving the projects, but especially for the financial assistance to the taxpayers of Lakehurst,” he added.
Firetto added, “we are also thankful to the local community for their patience, support and kind remarks on the progression of these projects since it began back in the spring.”
Straight Edge Construction Manager Mark Guyre said that one of the project’s carpenters attended the school in the 1960s. Firetto said that this was “an extra special project for him because he had been here as a student.”
This marks the first time in the school’s 80-year history that hot meals and other food will be served inhouse at the school. The Manchester Township Board of Education had been contracted previously to run the school’s kitchen operations.
“They contracted Pomptonian Food Service as their Food Service Management Company. They helped curate and cook our kids’ meals and were delivered to our school. Now, through an (request for proposals) process, Pomptonian was awarded to work in our kitchen directly on-site effective September 1, in conjunction with our existing cafeteria staff,” Firetto added.
Cafeteria Manager Sheila Sumner was busy that morning filling out the paperwork for the menu for the week. She said that the addition of the kitchen not only saved the district money, but also saved food. “You could have 200 chicken patties and only selling 150 and wasting all that extra. Our average is about 250 a day to buy lunch and about 150 to buy breakfast.”
“We have two hot lunches and four cold lunches every day. Today chicken patties are option number one and after that is a ‘bagelable’ which is a bagel with yogurt, string cheese or cream cheese and there is chicken Ceasar salad every day, ham sandwich every day, turkey sandwich every day. We offer a total of six options,” she added.
“Breakfast is all laid out, cereal, Pop-Tarts, cereal bars, muffins and fruit from 7:45 a.m. and 8 a.m. They can sit in here and eat it and if they come after 8 a.m. they can take it back to their classroom,” she added. PTA President Amanda Schreiber is an employee of the district as a server and cafeteria aide.
The school was built and opened in September 1943 and since its opening, “to our knowledge, we have never had an operating kitchen in our cafeteria to serve food to our students until now,” the business administrator said.
The school’s enrollment sits around 405-410 with new families enrolling each week. Counts will be finalized for state funding calculation on October 15.
Firetto said there were very minimal issues from start to finish. The kitchen area previously served as an office for Maintenance Supervisor Daniel Cuiffo. Cuiffo said he was very happy with how everything went with the projects.
Also present for the event was Councilwoman Patricia Hodges who said, “The mayor and council want to congratulate the school and administration for the completion of the project and hopefully the children will enjoy it – and good luck – in the future.”
Also present was Board of Education Vice President David Burton who noted, “in the 12 years I’ve been a board member this has been a desired long-time addition to the school. This will give the kids a better choice with hot meals. It is a big difference to cook food that is two and a half hours away and now it is cooked on the premises.”
“We thank the community for approving the referendum to get the projects done. The roof is water tight and they are doing the finishing touches,” Burton added. He was joined by Board members Deborah Pease and Amy Lowe. The next Board meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 15.
A class of students came by for the ceremony. When Superintendent Loren Fuhring asked them what they might want to add to future menus, one student requested Chinese food while another suggested lobster – which brought some laughter to those assembled in the cafeteria.
“We are so thankful for our office staff and administration for their dedication to this project and inspiration that dates back to the initial idea 10 years ago. The creation of a program like this makes my job really enjoyable knowing that all of our hard work is going to directly have a positive impact on our students,” Firetto said.
Firetto and Christina Schmidlin of the district’s business office had the chance to examine the chilly interior of the outside freezer unit. This was purchased outside the referendum utilizing reserve funds. It cost roughly $70,000.
“This is a long-term investment for us with the hope that with more kids that purchase meals we are able to store more food on site so we don’t have to order so much every week as it is more costly to deliver every week,” Firetto said.
