The School Nutrition Foundation (SNF) has named Dimitra Barrios, Foodservice Director for Ridley School District in Pennsylvania, the recipient of the Alto-Sham Equipment Grant to obtain a new holding cabinet valued at $9,000. The grant is among 2025 SNF Equipment Grants available to help school meal programs overcome staffing, budget or operational challenges. The additional funding supports programs working to expand fresh and scratch-made menu options, increase efficiencies and enhance the cafeteria experience to nourish students’ school days.
Ridley’s Leedom Elementary School does not have the adequate capacity to prepare hot foods. Meals transferred to the school must be held at proper temperatures to ensure food safety and preserve quality. However, the warmer at the school is 15 years old and does not provide consistent, even warming of transported hot menu items.
“Staff become frantically worried that sufficient hot meals will not be available for students. Having a new warmer would ease their minds and enable them to consistently stay on schedule without having to execute additional reheating processes,” said Barrios.
Supporting staff morale, minimizing food waste and ensuring that students can consistently expect their favorite hot foods to be served hot are additional benefits of new equipment at the school.
“The Ridley team is committed to consistently providing a high quality meal experience for students and we’re grateful this grant can help them achieve that goal at Leedom Elementary,” said SNF Chair, Becky Domokos-Bays, PhD, RD, SNS.
As the recipient of the Alto-Sham Equipment Grant, Ridley School District will be delivered the new holding cabinet to benefit program operations in the upcoming school year.
In addition, Ridley School District was also awarded one of 50 Innoseal Set-up Kits, including two Innoseal Professional Sealers and a case of 28-pack multi-color refills. The SNF Innoseal Equipment Grant enables schools with an efficient bag sealing machine that keeps fruits and vegetables fresh.
About School Nutrition Foundation:
The School Nutrition Foundation (SNF) is the charitable arm of the School Nutrition Association (SNA). SNF supports school nutrition professionals by offering grants and scholarships, providing free training opportunities and identifying research, trends and innovations. The 2025 SNF Equipment Grants are made possible by the generous contributions of Alto-Shaam, AmTab, Cambro Manufacturing, Food Warming Equipment Company (FWE), Hobart (ITW Food Equipment Group LLC Brand), Innoseal, LTI, Inc., Sterno Delivery, Vulcan (ITW Food Equipment Group LLC brand), and Winston Foodservice.
About School Nutrition Association:
The School Nutrition Association (SNA) is a national, non-profit professional organization representing 50,000 school nutrition professionals across the country. Founded in 1946, SNA and its members are dedicated to making healthy school meals and nutrition education available to all students. For more information on school meals, visit www.SchoolNutrition.org/SchoolMeals.
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