WCPS opens test kitchen to enhance recipes, trainings

Published 6:00 am Sunday, August 24, 2025

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Warren County Public Schools staff and administration and community members arrive for a ribbon-cutting event for the district’s new S.T.A.R. Center, a 8,000-square-foot test kitchen with modern-day cooking technologies for WCPS to enhance its meal offerings and food service for school communities countywide, off Porter Pike on Friday, Aug. 22, 2025.

GRACE MCDOWELL / BOWLING GREEN DAILY NEWS

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Chicken mini sandwiches and other samples of food available to Warren County Public Schools students in August and September are served to attendees of a ribbon-cutting event for WCPS’ new S.T.A.R. Center, a 8,000-square-foot test kitchen with modern-day cooking technologies for WCPS to enhance its meal offerings and food service for school communities countywide, off Porter Pike on Friday, Aug. 22, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / BOWLING GREEN DAILY NEWS

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Warren County Public Schools Director of Transportation Chip Jenkins jokes around with some of the dining services ladies as he collects a basket of chicken mini sandwiches during a ribbon-cutting event for WCPS’ new S.T.A.R. Center, a 8,000-square-foot test kitchen with modern-day cooking technologies for WCPS to enhance its meal offerings and food service for school communities countywide, off Porter Pike on Friday, Aug. 22, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / BOWLING GREEN DAILY NEWS

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Cups of fruit fries as well as fruit and yogurt parfaits along with other samples of food available to Warren County Public Schools students in August and September are served to attendees of a ribbon-cutting event for WCPS’ new S.T.A.R. Center, a 8,000-square-foot test kitchen with modern-day cooking technologies for WCPS to enhance its meal offerings and food service for school communities countywide, off Porter Pike on Friday, Aug. 22, 2025.

GRACE MCDOWELL / BOWLING GREEN DAILY NEWS

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Churro donuts and other samples of food available to Warren County Public Schools students in August and September are served to attendees of a ribbon-cutting event for WCPS’ new S.T.A.R. Center, a 8,000-square-foot test kitchen with modern-day cooking technologies for WCPS to enhance its meal offerings and food service for school communities countywide, off Porter Pike on Friday, Aug. 22, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / BOWLING GREEN DAILY NEWS

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Warren County Public Schools Director of Nutrition and Dining Services Kelly Holt speaks during a ribbon-cutting event for WCPS’ new S.T.A.R. Center, a 8,000-square-foot test kitchen with modern-day cooking technologies for WCPS to enhance its meal offerings and food service for school communities countywide, off Porter Pike on Friday, Aug. 22, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / BOWLING GREEN DAILY NEWS

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Warren County Public Schools Board Chairman Garry Chaffin speaks during a ribbon-cutting event for WCPS’ new S.T.A.R. Center, a 8,000-square-foot test kitchen with modern-day cooking technologies for WCPS to enhance its meal offerings and food service for school communities countywide, off Porter Pike on Friday, Aug. 22, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / BOWLING GREEN DAILY NEWS

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Warren County Public Schools’ mascot, Kenny P., stands in the corner to welcome visitors to a ribbon-cutting event for WCPS’ new S.T.A.R. Center, a 8,000-square-foot test kitchen with modern-day cooking technologies for WCPS to enhance its meal offerings and food service for school communities countywide, off Porter Pike on Friday, Aug. 22, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / BOWLING GREEN DAILY NEWS

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Warren County Public Schools Director of Nutrition and Dining Services Kelly Holt and Board Chairman Garry Chaffin cut a ribbon alongside other WCPS board members, administration and members of the community to officially open WCPS’ new S.T.A.R. Center, a 8,000-square-foot test kitchen with modern-day cooking technologies for WCPS to enhance its meal offerings and food service for school communities countywide, off Porter Pike on Friday, Aug. 22, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / BOWLING GREEN DAILY NEWS

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Warren County Public Schools Superintendent Rob Clayton speaks during a ribbon-cutting event for WCPS’ new S.T.A.R. Center, a 8,000-square-foot test kitchen with modern-day cooking technologies for WCPS to enhance its meal offerings and food service for school communities countywide, off Porter Pike on Friday, Aug. 22, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / BOWLING GREEN DAILY NEWS

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Warren County Public Schools Director of Nutrition and Dining Services Kelly Holt speaks about an old skillet used in the kitchens at the former Richardsville school as he talks about the advanced resources used for training the district’s nutrition and dining staff during a ribbon-cutting event for WCPS’ new S.T.A.R. Center, a 8,000-square-foot test kitchen with modern-day cooking technologies for WCPS to enhance its meal offerings and food service for school communities countywide, off Porter Pike on Friday, Aug. 22, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / BOWLING GREEN DAILY NEWS

BY DAVID MAMARIL HOROWITZ

david.horowitz@bgdailynews.com

The homemade salsa was fresh, nothing canned. The berry and yogurt parfaits had homemade granola and reduced-sugar yogurt. The cantaloupe, watermelon and honeydew were machine-shaped to resemble colored fries. The churro rings and chicken mini-sandwiches comprised whole wheat.

Warren County Public Schools served up the new recipes, available to students August and September, at a Thursday ribbon-cutting for the test kitchen where they were developed: WCPS’s new S.T.A.R. Center. Roughly 8,000 square feet of dedicated space feature modern-day cooking technologies for WCPS to enhance its meal offerings and food service for school communities countywide.

“If we did not have this facility, it would be a major hurdle to even try to take on one of those recipes,” WCPS Director of Nutrition and Dining Services Kelly Holt said of the provisions.

Opened this summer, the roughly $2.5 million center is used for recipe development with new technologies as well as staff trainings. The trainings are to develop cooking and food service skills and to encourage students to eat nutritiously; WCPS Nutrition and Dining will use the facility for its S.T.A.R. Center Academy, a new program for training staff where those areas will be the focus.

“Nutrition 10 years ago is not what nutrition is today, and we realized that nutrition 10 years from now will not look like what it is today,” Holt said.

Along one wall stood wheeled convection and combi ovens, a steam-jacketed tilting kettle and a Winston cooker and warmer, with room left for future technology – and Holt anticipates the center will better nutrition for students for decades to come.

“(Nutrition is) constantly evolving, and the S.T.A.R. Center is here, and it’s ready to evolve with all the new information that we have to try to maximize nutrition for our students,” he said.

With school kitchens in use around 10 hours daily, windows to use them for recipe development and training were few and small, according to Holt.

So, previously, the department would go to a school for recipe development and work closely with the School Nutrition Association – “a great resource,” Holt added, but not one as able to “home-grow” recipes to students’ likes.

Last school year, WCPS served about 4.1 million meals for students’ breakfast and lunch, not including staff meals, snacks for after-school programs, and summer meals, Holt said.