LTI Helps Transform Dining at Palmetto High School
Palmetto High School located in historic Palmetto, Florida, simply put, was a school that needed some love. It had long required significant renovations, with its cafeteria being no exception. The school, built many years ago, had an outdated structure and limited capacity to meet modern needs. Once three new schools in the county were completed, the School District of Manatee County approved a campus-wide renovation, which included a brand-new building complete with a new cafeteria.
Regina Thoma, SNS, director of food and nutrition services for the district, oversaw the project to meet the demands of the growing student population. She worked closely with manufacturers rep group Eaton Marketing and Bob Saraceno, as well as Willis Smith, director of educational sales at LTI.
Obstacles of an outdated cafeteria
Before the construction of the new school, Palmetto High’s old cafeteria had been refurbished using LTI equipment, but the facility remained outdated. The primary challenges included: aging infrastructure, limited equipment capacity and efficiency in student service, among others.
Future-ready solutions
To meet the needs of Palmetto High School, the renovation included a comprehensive redesign of the cafeteria using LTI equipment. Drawing from a similar project completed at Parrish Community High School, Thoma and her team worked with LTI to install a variety of custom food service solutions that addressed both functionality and aesthetics. This included:
- Double-tier frost tops: Used to display a wide variety of cold items and sandwiches, allowing the cafeteria to maximize space and improve visual merchandising.
- QuickSwitch technology: This versatile equipment allowed staff to easily switch between hot and cold service, providing flexibility in menu offerings.
- Drop-in milk coolers and beverage merchandisers: Integrated into the serving lines to help streamline beverage service while maintaining optimal temperatures.
- Hot wells and sandwich slides: These helped to improve the variety of food offerings while keeping hot items readily available and accessible.
The installation was designed to increase efficiency in food prep and service. With additional storage options underneath the counters, staff could now store more food directly at the point of service, reducing the need to run back and forth to retrieve items.
From history to modern dining
The cafeteria was completed and opened in August 2024, and early feedback from students, staff and administration has been overwhelmingly positive. Meal counts have risen, with September 2024 participation numbers showing a notable increase. Lunch participation reached 57.27%, up from 55.89% in September 2023. Similarly, breakfast participation saw a boost, rising to 27.53% compared to 25.55% last year. Year-to-date numbers are still being finalized, but the upward trend is clear.
The new serving lines and equipment have dramatically improved the student experience, allowing for quicker service. Additionally, the foodservice team no longer needs to store excess food in the back, as the hot holding and refrigeration units allow for more food to be kept at the point of service, facilitating faster meal service during lunch periods.
Palmetto High also uses LTI Grab and Go Carts, for breakfast which increases participation and helps students get to class quickly.
Building success with LTI
Thoma’s longstanding partnership with LTI played a positive role in ensuring the success of the project, from concept to completion.
As Thoma stated, “For us, it’s the fact that LTI covers all the bases. The equipment is innovative — from quick switches to frost tops — which increases our capacity to do everything we need to do. Having design and décor built into the process is huge for us because coordinating everything separately would be difficult. Being able to have the whole picture complete is incredibly important.”
