It had been 20 years since a new high school was built in Lincoln, Neb., so when Lincoln Public Schools’ (LPS) student enrollment grew 18% from 2010 to 2020, it became necessary to build two new high schools on the outskirts of the city.

After a bond issue passed, plans were developed for two school buildings to have identical designs and building systems. The designs also allowed for expansion, should the need arise over the next 20 years.

Northwest High School opened in 2022 to freshmen, sophomores and juniors; seniors were added the following year. Standing Bear High School opened in 2023 with freshmen and sophomores, then added a junior class in 2024. Northwest is currently at capacity with 1,000 students, and Standing Bear will be near capacity during the next school year when it adds a senior class. Each school contains a back-of-the-house storage and production kitchen and front-of-the-house servery. Northwest serves an average of 700 students each day; Standing Bear serves 500 students each day.

“The buildings were designed to be innovative, flexible, forward-thinking and future-ready,” says Tim Ripp, AIA, LEED AP, director of architecture, director of construction administration, senior principal, Clark & Enersen, Lincoln, Neb.

Photography courtesy of LTI; photos by Tom Kessler, Kessler Photography

Being future-ready includes incorporating sustainable design principles, such as horizontal and vertical portals to allow natural light to penetrate deeper into the building core, having energy-efficient building systems, using sustainable building materials and using a geothermal well field as part of the mechanical system. Site elements include water quality cells for stormwater, balanced grading on the sites, native landscaping and protection of existing wetlands.

“In the cafeterias, we also planned for a larger need for mobile ordering in the years to come,” says consultant Jennifer Rohn, principal, Foodlines, a foodservice design firm in Lincoln, Neb.

Both schools contain substantial amounts of elevation change across the sites. Entries reside at two floor levels. The main/administrative entry is located on the first level. The student/activities entry is on the second level.

“For the interior, we designed vibrant yet durable facilities,” Ripp says. “Corridors utilize porcelain wall tile to six feet for durability as well as rubber flooring, an LPS standard. Sealed concrete floors were utilized in innovation lab areas. Graphics and school branding were incorporated into the overall design.”

Designers integrated wood throughout the main area to bring warmth to the space. “The stained white oak allows a transition from the outdoors to the indoors,” Ripp says. “Windows are inset into a perimeter wall to bring natural light into the cafeteria and dining space.”

The design team first met in July 2019. “We were two-thirds of the way through design when COVID hit in March 2020,” Rohn says. “We had design meetings planned at other district high schools to review equipment used in those schools and to discuss what did and didn’t work the exact week that [LPS] shut down because of COVID. All design meetings were put on hold as we waited for the virus to pass — something we thought would happen in a matter of weeks.”

At first, instead of serving students on campus and planning for its new facilities, the foodservice team organized to-go lunches for students. Eventually, the project team met using video calls out of concern for everyone’s health.

Since the project was completed, the operation meets the approval of students and staff. “Overall, the design allows students to come through the cafeteria lines quickly, and it feels aesthetically like a college servery,” says Andrew Ashelford, MBA, RDN, SNS, director of nutrition services for LPS. “The space is welcoming with lots of natural light and wood undertones. This and the variety of food offered encourages all students, including juniors and students who are allowed to leave campus for meals, to stay on campus. Staff are pleased because we have great equipment, the operation runs efficiently, and we have enough storage so items aren’t buried and can be taken out quickly.”

Students select a variety of fruit and vegetables at stations with easy-to-reach bins. Photography courtesy of LTI; photo by Tom Kessler, Kessler Photography

Back-of-the-House Kitchen

Deliveries arrive at a shared receiving area with overhead doors. Team members carry menu ingredients into the walk-in cooler, a walk-in freezer or dry storage. “The storage spaces are furnished with high-density shelving to maximize storage capacity,” Rohn says. In addition, all walk-ins defrost on demand, so the evaporators don’t defrost unnecessarily. Walk-in walls contain insulation with zero-ozone-depleting Class I polyurethane foam.

Team members accept bread deliveries through a second door that leads into a 130-square-foot room.

In the kitchens, menu ingredients and finished items are cooked and/or assembled for delivery to the stations in the high school serveries or to elementary schools’ finishing kitchens.

Team members move menu ingredients for from-scratch menu items to a 300-square-foot vegetable prep area with two L-shaped tables that allow multiple team members to work in this area. This prep area contains can openers, a slicer, a two-compartment sink and a reach-in refrigerator. After prepping the ingredients, team members move these fruits and vegetables to a staging area. In the staging area, culinary staff add the food to other ready-to-serve menu items served or items being assembled for serving.

The cook’s preparation area contains a single compartment sink and a hot water dispenser for making mashed potatoes and utilizes one side of the school’s cookline. The cookline contains two double-stacked combi ovens and a large mixer kettle with a pumping station.

“This area operates with a cook-chill process,” Ashelford says. Menu ingredients, such as hamburger meat for tacos and sloppy Joes, spaghetti with marinara sauce and macaroni and cheese, are prepared in the steam-jacketed kettle. The cooked menu ingredients are then pumped into bags and chilled in two blast chillers. Team members either move these menu items into refrigerators in the kitchen to await warming for breakfast or lunch at the high schools or place them on sheet pans or in containers that are placed in carts and transported to the elementary schools.

“The mixer kettle and pumping/bagging station were specifically chosen to prepare large amounts of product to be blast chilled and rethermalized for later meals, avoiding a lot of product waste,” Rohn explains. “We also have a water meter at the large kettle for exact metering of the water needed for different products to ensure there is no excessive usage.”

This cook-chill approach “also allows for less equipment to be used across the district, which helps save the district money,” Ashelford says.

Along a wall opposite the cookline resides a baking area with a double-stack convection oven and a 12-gallon countertop kettle. A long, baker’s table, a proofer and a dough rounder sit in the middle of the baking prep area, which also contains 20-, 60- and 80-quart mixers along the walls. A rotating rack oven and roll-in proofing cabinet complete the space and allow the culinary team to scratch-bake cookies and other baked items.

“Baking and vegetable prep areas were strategically located on opposite sides of the cookline so they would be most convenient to the equipment they both need,” Ashelford says. “Vegetable prep most often feeds into the combi ovens. Baking prep often requires the use of convection ovens and small kettles for sauces, frostings or fillings. The rotary oven and proofer are only used by baking prep, so [they] are located in a remote corner of the baking area.

“We’re very fortunate to be able to make our own garlic bread, rolls and cinnamon rolls in these kitchens,” Ashelford adds. “The scents of freshly baked goods contribute to the welcoming environment.” Including the baked items and other menu items, nearly 40% of the menu is made from scratch.

All menu items for the high schools feed perpendicularly from the staging area cookline and bakery to hot, cold and frozen pass-through units located between the back of the house and servery.

The back of the house also houses a cart wash and a 270-square-foot indoor area for trash and recycling. The area also includes a 550-square-foot staff break room, locker area and restroom.

The warewash room includes a 24-foot-long soiled table with a prerinse sink, rack dish machines with blower dryers, a 12-foot clean dish table, as well as a 4-compartment power soak sink. “There is ample space for racks and carts and a 60-square-foot cart wash to clean multiple utility carts, tray carts or other items,” Rohn says. A hose reel with 50 feet of hose resides near the power soak sink so team members can hose down the entire room. Walls are tiled to the ceiling.

The kitchen contains a tilting kettle, combi ovens and an ice machine. Photographs courtesy of Erickson Sullivan Architects and Foodlines; photo by Tom Kessler, Kessler Photography

Front-of-the-House Servery

“The front of the house allows students easy access to all menu items they like the best,” Ashelford notes. “The serving lines allow students to easily reach their selected entree before moving to the self-serve fruit and vegetable bars. The food shields are easy to move to allow staff quick access to refilling the self-serve fruit and vegetable bars.”

As the students enter the servery area, they have options to select menu items from stations. These include The Main Dish, which offers a standard three-week cycle menu. Menu items reside in cold and hot wells that ensure food remains at the appropriate temperatures. Heat lamps keep menu items hot during service periods. The station named Pizza features three varieties each day. Domino’s Pizza supplies pizzas in two deliveries daily. Team members either serve it soon after delivery or place it briefly in warming cabinets. “We buy this pizza because we want to encourage students to stay at school and eat in the cafeterias,” Ashelford explains.

The station named Sides features french fries, scalloped potatoes and baked potatoes. The station named Grill offers hamburgers, cheeseburgers and chicken patty sandwiches. Team members heat menu items from these stations in a conveyor oven. All entrees are served on compostable plates and bowls.

After selecting their entrees and sides, students select fresh and canned fruits and vegetables placed in single-use compostable or plastic containers from one of two self-service bars. They also help themselves to ice cream and beverages including milk, flavored waters, iced tea and juices. Students move through the servery to double-sided cashier stands. “These allow for students to move quickly and efficiently though the point-of-sale stands without having to wait in long lines,” Rohn says.

Students select fruit and vegetables displayed in wells. Photograph courtesy of Lincoln Public Schools; photo by Emily Anton

Tray Return and Energy Savings

A spacious tray return area with a tray return window also contains multiple trash containers, recycling bins and a composting bin to allow for two lines of students to enter the space at once and approach the pass-through window. “Prior to reaching the tray return area, there is a sharing table where students may leave unopened food for other students who would like it,” Rohn says.

After students return their trays, team members scrape them at a prerinse sink with a prerinse faucet. Team members wash trays and all kitchen wares in the two-rack dish machines with integral blower dryers. If trays and kitchen wares need further drip drying, team members place them on a tray drying rack. Soiled pots and pans are tumbled, washed, rinsed and sanitized in the power soak sink.

“Warewash was located adjacent to the vegetable prep area and near the cookline for convenience of washing pots, pans and utensils without staff having to travel far through other areas of the kitchen, but it was also located on one side of the cafeteria to limit a lot of cross traffic from students leaving the servery,” Rohn notes.

The design team also considered energy savings throughout the operation. Energy Star-rated equipment was used whenever possible. “The dishwasher is Energy Star-rated with only 0.62 gallons per rack and 126 gallons maximum per hour. Recirculated rinse water is used for the wash water,” Rohn says. In addition, kitchen faucets feature aerators with flow control to restrict water usage. Disposers have a water-saving control center that senses the load in the disposer and regulates the amount of water needed to grind the waste products.

Also, the ice machine is programmable so that it doesn’t produce more ice than the schools need during the day. Sensors within the hoods detect which equipment is running and how much heat is being generated, triggering a variable speed exhaust fan that will expand or reduce the air being exhausted. The make-up air is based on the number of hoods operating.

As students become accustomed to the cafeterias in the two new schools, they are attracted to the variety of menu items and the welcoming ambience. Team members are also finding their way in the new operations. Eventually, two mobile ordering carts will be introduced to reduce congestion within the cafeteria. Each cart will hold more than 80 meals, allowing students to order via their phones and pick up their meals without navigating through the main serving lines.

Overhead signs call attention to stations. The colorful standoff panels add a layer of sophistication to the servery. Photograph courtesy of Erickson Sullivan Architects and Foodlines; photo by Tom Kessler, Kessler Photography

Key Players

Owner: Lincoln Public Schools

Director of nutrition services: Andrew Ashelford, MBA, RDN, SNS; Edith Zumwalt, retired

Director of operations: Scott Wieskamp

Architect: Clark & Enersen, Lincoln, Neb.: TJ Schirmer, PE, LEED AP, director of engineering, senior principal; Tim Ripp, AIA, LEED AP, director of architecture, director of construction administration, senior principal 

Interior design: Clark & Enersen: Kara Hinrichs, interior designer, associate

Foodservice consultants: Foodlines, Lincoln, Neb.: Jennifer Rohn, principal; Courtney Klimm, production coordinator; Dave Erickson, AIA, retired

Equipment dealer: TriMark Hockenbergs, Omaha, Neb.: Ryan Nelson

About the Project

• Opened: Northwest High School in 2022; Standing Bear High School in 2023

  Scope of project: Two new high school cafeterias in Lincoln Public Schools, including back-of-the-house kitchen and front-of-the-house servery

  Website: lsb.lps.org

• Lincoln Public Schools: 41,000 students in more than 70 schools, including 40 elementary, 12 middle and 8 high schools and other special programs. Northwest High School served 21,000 breakfasts and 84,000 lunches during fiscal year 2023-2024. Standing Bear High School served 4,000 breakfasts and 30,000 lunches during fiscal year 2023-2024 with partial enrollment. Roughly half of the students participate in the free and reduced lunch program. 
• Size of Standing Bear and Northwest foodservice: 10,400 sq. ft, including a 3,200-sq. ft. servery and a 7,200-sq. ft. back of the house
• Seats: 372 at each school
• Breakfast hours:
  • Northwest, 7:15 a.m. to 8 a.m.
  • Standing Bear, 7:25 a.m. to 7:55 a.m.
• Lunch hours:
  • Northwest, 11:15 a.m. to 12:50 p.m.
  • Standing Bear, 11 a.m. to 12:20 p.m.
• Average meal cost, approximate: Breakfast, $1.80; lunch, $3
• Daily transactions/covers:
• Northwest: Breakfast, 140, and lunch, 518
• Standing Bear: Breakfast, 35, and lunch, 323
• Total annual FY 23-24 revenue for all schools: Nearly $27 million
• Menu concepts and menu specialties: Students can take reimbursable meals or a la carte. The Main Dish offers a standard three-week-cycle menu; Pizza offers three varieties of pizza each day; Sides offers french fries, scallop potatoes and baked potatoes; The Grill features grilled hamburgers, cheeseburgers and chicken patty sandwiches
• Staff: Northwest, 11 employees; Standing Bear, 7 employees
• Equipment investment: $1.7 million for each school

Key Players

• Owner: Lincoln Public Schools
• Director of nutrition services: Andrew Ashelford, MBA, RDN, SNS; Edith Zumwalt, retired
• Director of operations: Scott Wieskamp
• Architect: Clark & Enersen, Lincoln, Neb.: TJ Schirmer, PE, LEED AP, director of engineering, senior principal; Tim Ripp, AIA, LEED AP, director of architecture, director of construction administration, senior principal 
• Interior design: Clark & Enersen: Kara Hinrichs, interior designer, associate
• Foodservice consultants: Foodlines, Lincoln, Neb.: Jennifer Rohn, principal; Courtney Klimm, production coordinator; Dave Erickson, AIA, retired
• Equipment dealer: TriMark Hockenbergs, Omaha, Neb.: Ryan Nelson