Ocoee Middle serves up cafeteria upgrades

Ocoee Middle School’s cafeteria received a new look earlier this school year.

The once-blank walls have been adorned with new murals and artwork to add a splash of color to the school’s dining space. A cardinal — the school’s mascot — shares a wall with depictions of a keyboard and a basketball. The silhouette of a trumpet sits against a brick-wall background, and the walls outlining the stage have been painted red. Even the long lunch tables have been replaced with high-tops, round tables and other more modern seating arrangements. The new seating even increased the seating capacity from 480 to 530.

“Meal times are the No. 1 social event for our students,” said Javier Vazquez, senior administrator of Food and Nutrition Services at Orange County Public Schools. “Our students are aware of the atmosphere of their eating environment. By making a few changes it brings the students into the cafeteria where they can also participate in an awesome meal service.”

Students, administrative officials and Food and Nutrition management staff all provided input when it came to coming up with the designs for the remodel of the cafeteria. OCPS engaged with a focus group of about 20 to 30 students of different grades to see what design concepts they wanted in their dining space, Vazquez said.

“The design of the school’s (cafeteria) was based on the meetings we had with the student focus and  the meetings we had with the administrators at the school,” he said. “Based on the meetings, what we decided to do was select things that the school was involved in — the icons that pretty much identify programs that the school is involved in when it comes to technology, drama (and) music. Then, we also had our graphic designer who added their touch.”

The new design of the dining space makes it look more like a mall food court or the dining room of a restaurant rather than traditional school cafeteria. The goal of the remodeled cafeterias is to see if the new look of the dining spaces can make a change within the student environment and offer students a dining that is more comforting that a traditional cafeteria.

“The idea is to try to engage the students in what they are familiar with, and what we mean by that is if you look at the chain (restaurants) where these students go to eat … this is the type of atmosphere that they’re providing to their customers,” Vazquez said. “We want to be able to provide that same atmosphere — not just from the food courts but from (restaurants).”

The cafeteria at Ocoee Middle School isn’t the only dining space that has received some recent upgrades. Last year, OCPS remodeled the high school cafeterias with similar concepts to give them a new look. For this school year, the district has initiated a pilot program to remodel the cafeterias of Ocoee, Corner Lake and Innovation middle schools. If the pilot program is successful, it could expand to include other middle schools in the district, Vazquez said.

“We actually updated all high schools and have seen that the students in most schools have enjoyed the cafeteria makeover, where we have noticed an increase in participation by almost 7%,” Vazquez said. “Pending review of the results of the pilot, we hope to expand the other (middle schools).”

The cost to remodel the Ocoee Middle School cafeteria was just less than $300,000. The project was funded through the OCPS Food and Nutrition Services fund, funded by the United States Department of Agriculture.