Warren County Public Schools cuts ribbon on new STAR Center

BOWLING GREEN, Ky – Warren County Public Schools officially opened its new STAR Center on Wednesday, a facility designed to expand training and improve student nutrition across the district.

The STAR Center, which stands for Serving, Training, and Advanced Resources, will be used by the district’s Nutrition and Dining Department to develop new recipes, train staff on advanced kitchen technology and strengthen how meals are served in schools.

“It’s a brand new facility for the nutrition and dining staff to come and learn and train,” said Kelly Holt, director of nutrition and dining for WCPS. “We’re going to work on new recipes, work with new technologies, and different ways to promote good nutrition and good health to all of our students when they come and eat with us every school day.”

The district served more than 4.1 million meals last school year, a number that does not include after-school snacks or summer meals. Holt said the center will give staff the ability to learn in a space built for them rather than inside busy school kitchens.

“They can come here and feel comfortable and feel confident,” Holt said. “Walk out of here confident that they know how to use the equipment to the betterment of food quality and presentation and the food for our students.”

The STAR Center will also house the new Star Center Academy, a district-approved training program for the more than 230 WCPS nutrition and dining employees.

“Every day I walk into the Star Center, I have a smile on my face, thinking about all the new aspects that I want to incorporate in that day,” Holt said. “And every day, bar none, there are new ideas that we want to utilize this place for in the future, to better the nutritional experience for all of our students in years to come.”

Holt said he sees the center as a way to help the district keep up with changes in food service and nutrition.

“Nutrition 10 years ago is not what nutrition is today,” he said. “And we realized that nutrition 10 years from now will not look like it is today. So it’s constantly evolving, and the Star Center is here and ready to evolve with