Mrs. Barnett’s classroom kitchens are open because of generous donations. As the beginning of the school year began, Mrs. Barnett noticed that her culinary class size had quadrupled in size from last year. The anticipation of more students was exciting but meant that 1 fully stocked kitchen would not suffice this year, she would need all 5 kitchens ready to go. Through the support of school co-workers, anonymous donors, and the Friona Vocational Agriculture Organization, Mrs. Barnett’s classroom kitchens are now fully functional.

The kitchens are officially open and being used. Students have made homecoming cookies, put up corn for Maize Days and roasted chicken wings all in the last couple of weeks. Not only that, but students have learned how to inventory their new kitchen items as well. Their kitchens are now all nicely labeled so that these items can be quickly identified and found. Their next community project will be selling pink ribbon cookies at the pink out football game on October 18th. All proceeds from this project will go to the Parmer County Cancer Coalition.

Mrs. Barnett, her culinary class, and the FCCLA organization are sincerely grateful for the donations made to her class. They have so many new skills to look forward to learning from these resources. It is possible to have these opportunities because of generous donations like these. Not only will these students be learning valuable lessons from these resources but life lessons that they can use for the rest of their lives.

Friona Vocational Agriculture Association representatives (l-r) Greg Lewellen, Bill White, and Greg O’Brian present a $900 check to FCCLA and the culinary class at Friona High School.