I’ve worked at Lopez School for 24 years in the school kitchen. I’m proud of our program. We serve healthy meals in collaboration with the garden program and the culinary class.

I’m writing in favor of passing the school bond. I know that the whole school needs renovation, but this is what I know from being kitchen manager and head cook.

We have a smelly, backed-up sewer system. The students have to wipe their trays of all food so that it doesn’t back up the system. The kitchen staff scrapes and wipes all cooking equipment, salad dressing containers, salad bowls etc. before dishwashing.

We use more than three rolls of paper towels a day. We should all be planting trees. Leaky faucets and other plumbing issues need repair often.

The refrigerator and freezer needed repair three times in September. The dishwasher is ancient and breaks down often. The compressor that runs the ailing reach-in fridge in the kitchen is so loud that we suspect we all have hearing loss because of it.

We are required to refrain from dumping the leftover milk from lunch into our trash.

We can’t pour it down the drain. Our dumpsters smell unspeakably bad because of the milk.

It pains me to struggle through these difficulties to serve our students a decent meal. They deserve better and our kitchen workers deserve a work environment that isn’t constantly frustrating.

The longer we take to make these essential repairs, the more it will cost us.

Please vote for the capital projects bond.

Very Sincerely,

Dana Cotten

Lopez School kitchen manager