Fresh Line, Served with Pride
Ithaca Central School District
Modernizing the District’s production kitchen for healthier meals
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In Ithaca City School District, Boynton Middle School is the production kitchen for the entire District. It serves about 5,000 students every day out of that kitchen, and the food is transported to other schools for serving. The District’s executive chef, registered dietitian and director of child nutrition and operations staff work to develop nutritious meal options using fresh ingredients that are prepared from scratch.
Practical challenges at Boynton included insufficient electrical capacity for the electric combination ovens, an undersized exhaust hood, and inadequate floor drainage that allowed overflow from large kettles to create slip hazards. Each seemingly straightforward equipment change had downstream impacts — trench drains disturbed buried conduits, the exhaust hood replacement required significant demolition and reframing, and electrical upgrades extended back to the building’s main panel.
To manage these complexities, Tetra Tech prioritized phased design and close scheduling coordination with District staff. The engineering design team recommended upgrading electrical distribution and designed a new hood system appropriately sized for current and foreseeable equipment loads, added floor drains to capture kettle overflow, and specified equipment placements that improved workflow without requiring a full renovation. Where renovations would have been extensive, specialized foodservice consultants were engaged to refine workflow, ergonomics, and equipment selection.
The A/E team approached the design with a practical and forward-looking approach: confirming infrastructure capacity before finalizing commercial equipment purchases, scheduled the improvements during school breaks and weekends when possible, to minimize operational disruption, and built extra lead time into plans for electrical work and any abatement. In one instance, the team planned major upgrades for a summer window to maintain uninterrupted kitchen operations during the school year.
By aligning technical design with operational needs, Tetra Tech helped Boynton Middle School safely support scratch-cooking and healthier menus for thousands of students while respecting space and resource limitations.