You’ve started to notice the faded paint on the walls and the chipped tables in your school cafeteria and you’re ready to make some updates, but you don’t know where to begin. When you look at all of the things in your school cafeteria that you want to change, it starts to feel very overwhelming.
You know that the budget doesn’t allow for a full renovation at one time and the good news is: you don’t need to tackle it all at once. At Ingenious Culinary Concepts, our school cafeteria renovation services can complete projects in phases, which allows us to work within your budget while providing effective low school nutrition participation solutions.
Transforming Your School Cafeteria Starts With A Vision
A super simple first step to transforming your school cafeteria is a FREE vision session. This is something completely free that we offer at Ingenious Culinary Concepts and we encourage you to take advantage of it if you’re ready to see what your cafeteria can become. A school cafeteria vision session is where our founder and chief innovator, Kern Halls, will come to your school and walk your cafeteria with you and help build a customized strategy for your space. As an experienced school cafeteria design consultant, he will ask all the right questions to help you easily make the right decisions for your cafeteria and offer insights that otherwise you might not have thought about.
When looking at updating your school cafeteria redesign in phases, there is an order that usually makes the most sense. Now obviously, if you have tables that are literally falling apart, you might opt to do things in a different order, but we want to show you a breakdown of what these phases could be.
Phase One: Fresh School Cafeteria Paint and Graphics
In this phase your school cafeteria walls will look brand new with fresh paint and new custom graphics. Now picking a color for the walls might sound like a simple choice but there are things to consider such as: “What emotion does this color invoke?” and “Do we mainly want to use a neutral color with a few accent walls in our school colors?”
Then there are the school cafeteria graphics. Do you want school-themed graphics for an added sense of school pride or motivational graphics to inspire students? Maybe you want a mixture of both!
Phase One will already have your school cafeteria feeling like a brand new space for students and staff to enjoy. This is just the beginning, because things just keep getting better after this!
Phase Two: School Cafeteria Furniture
Bring in the new layout with all new school cafeteria furniture. Your school cafeteria might currently have rows of long communal tables that give off a cold, institutional feel. Through our K-12 cafeteria design services, your cafeteria can now be a dynamic mix of round tables that promote connection, high-tops that help utilize every square foot, and booths to bring in a modern restaurant feel. Don’t worry about figuring out how each table fits into your space because layout optimization is a core part of what Ingenious Culinary Concepts does for you.
Phase Two can actually be broken down into two parts if that’s what is needed to stay within your set budget. You can always prioritize replacing more of your outdated furniture first, then follow up with replacing the remainder when your budget resets.
Phase Three: Enjoy Your New School Cafeteria
We hope you weren’t expecting too many phases in this process, because it really is that simple. We take the hard parts of planning and installing while leaving the fun part to you! Redesigning your school cafeteria to create a space for students and staff to gather, enjoy good food and the company of others, is an investment that you should be proud of.
Create a space in your school that students look forward to being in, feel encouraged and welcomed in and you’ll see just how much the participation in school meals increases.
Get Your Vision Session on the Calendar
If you’re ready to get the ball rolling, schedule your FREE vision session today! We can’t wait to see what your cafeteria can be.
Kern Halls is the founder and Chief Innovator of Ingenious Culinary Concepts, a cafeteria transformation company specializing in K-12 school nutrition programs. With more than 17 years inside the k-12 school environment, Kern writes from firsthand experience about the challenges and opportunities facing school nutrition programs today. He is a recipient of the 2010 USDA Food and Nutrition Services Best Practice Award, a nine-year top-rated speaker at the School Nutrition Association Annual National Conference, and has led the transformation of more than 85 school cafeterias across the United States.
