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Scratch-made sausages in the Central Kitchen a hit in school cafeterias

Central Kitchen sausage making

Food Services staff member Lisa Jones holds tray of sausages in the Central Kitchen in early December

Central Kitchen sausage making

The big board shows preparations for upcoming school meals

Central Kitchen sausage making

Central Kitchen cook Sean Ingram mixes the meat

Central Kitchen sausage making

Ingram blends spices into the meat

Central Kitchen sausage making

The sausages are formed into pucks and placed on trays

Central Kitchen sausage making

Central Kitchen lead Kristie Edwards pulls rack of cooked sausages out of the oven

Central Kitchen sausage making

 Edwards pushes the cooked sausages into the blast chillers

Central Kitchen sausage making

Central Kitchen cook Paul Cottnair packages the chilled sausages for freezing

BPS driver moves boxes out of the Central Kitchen freezer for delivery to school cafeterias

BPS driver Benjamin Pries, operating the forklift, moves boxes out of the Central Kitchen freezer for delivery to school cafeterias

Lunch staff at Sunnyland shares meal tray with sausages on it

Food Services assistant Lisa Ammerman adds sausages to meal trays being served at Sunnyland Elementary School

Central Kitchen staff members in front of Good Food Promise wall in Central Kitchen

Food Services field supervisor Angel Nelson and culinary coordinator Ariana Barse in front of the Good Food Promise wall in the Central Kitchen office

Sunnyland student goes through cafeteria line
Sunnyland students enjoy the french toast and sausage lunch
Sunnyland student goes through cafeteria line
BHS student filling tray with salad bar selections
BHS student with sausage lunch
BHS students enjoy the sausages
School meal tray

The scratch-cooked sausages were part of the "breakfast-for-lunch" entree in December, served alongside French toast with scratch-made berry sauce

  • A One Schoolhouse Approach
Scratch-made sausages in the Central Kitchen a hit in school cafeterias

Late last year, the Central Kitchen of Bellingham Public School was busy one morning with all stages of sausage-making. We mean “real” sausage-making, not the behind-the-scenes kind associated with policymaking.

Though we were “behind-the-scenes” in the kitchen, the work and passion of the Central Kitchen staff was on display and transparent.

The sausage process started with the blending of ground pork with a mix of spices in the Fatosa mixer machine. The locally raised and harvested meat came from Pure Country Farms in Moses Lake, Wash. earlier that week.

Next step involved putting the now blended spiced meat through another machine, the Gesame meatball forming machine, this one more automated, shaping them into round patties (or pucks). Think Lucille Ball in the candy factory, but recent retiree Lisa Jones never missed a beat pulling them off and placing them perfectly lined up on a tray.

After they were placed on the roasting trays, they were cooked to 165 degrees using the automated Rational Combi-Ovens.

After a brief cooling in the commercial blast chillers, the patties are then sealed into plastic bags and placed in a freezer.

They are then transported to school cafeterias by BPS drivers. In this particular process, the sausages were prepped, cooked and frozen on a Wednesday and transferred to cafeterias the following week.

This batch of sausages was then heated up for the popular breakfast-for lunch-entrée of French toast with scratch-made berry sauce, the pork sausages, alongside the always present salad bar.

This is just one of the many scratch-made recipes produced out of the district’s kitchen on a regular basis.

Our Central Kitchen and industrial equipment came to be thanks to voter support of the 2013 bond which grew out of an upswell of community and parent support. The Central Kitchen was built alongside The Bellingham Good Food Promise’s charge “real food, made with love.”

The Food Services program is led by director Lindsay Ahrens, culinary coordinator Ariana Barsa and field supervisor Angel Nelson.

Feeding approximately 5,700 students every day, the Food Services program has 79 staff members working in the Central Kitchen and 22 school cafeterias.

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