PORT TOWNSEND — The Port Townsend High School culinary program’s new mobile kitchen hit a small road bump that will delay delivery of the 18-foot-long vehicle from this spring to July.
“We’re excited and trying to be patient,” Principal Carrie Ehrhardt said.
Work on the truck was postponed pending approval from the state Department of Labor & Industries’ Factory Assembled Structure Law & Rules that reviews design specifications for converted vendor vehicles like food trucks and trailers. That approval finally came through this month.
“They make sure everything — sinks, stoves, range hood, venting, plumbing, electrical — meets health codes,” Ehrhardt said.
Western Food Trucks & Trailers in Richland is converting the truck into a commercial kitchen where students will learn food industry skills. Ehrhardt and CTE culinary program instructor Jennifer Kruse purchased the turck on Craiglist and delivered it to the business in October.
The mobile kitchen will be a teaching tool for the high school’s culinary program with plans for students to cater community events and work with local professional chefs and restaurants. The CTE program also partnered with Jefferson Healthcare and Jefferson County Farmers Markets to share the kitchen.
“We’re really open to how we can use it,” Ehrhardt said.
The $85,000 for purchasing the truck and transforming it into a kitchen on wheels came from unused technical education funds. A Carl. D. Perkins grant will pay for the $10,000 exterior design work.
Ehrhardt said the culinary program had already received calls from local organizations interested in students catering their events this summer. She has told them students and the school are just as eager for the mobile kitchen to arrive as they are.
“Word has spread,” she said.
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached at Paula.Hunt@soundpublishing.com
