Freezer malfunction causes food waste

During winter break, there were multiple power outages in the Kingsport area. When Sevier Middle had a power outage, the school freezer lost all power and all of the food spoiled. Returning teachers and students had to deal with a bad smell and a lack of food when they returned in January.

“With all the power outages, a fuse went out and we weren’t alerted like we usually would be,” cafeteria manager Shanda Brooks said. “It was devastating. We don’t like wasted food and there was a lot.”

Spoiled foods included meats, pizza, vegetables, and even juice.

“I don’t think it could have been prevented,” Carole Long, a 6th grade science teacher, said.

Teachers returned first from break for an in-service day and had to deal with the strong smell of spoiled food.

“The smell even managed to get into my classroom, and I am on the top floor of the building,” Chris Carr, a 7th grade teacher, said. “I can’t imagine what it was like on the lower 2 floors.  Our custodial staff did a remarkable job in cleaning out the freezers. I’m not sure how they managed to get rid of the smell, but it only lasted a couple of days. Without them, I would hate to imagine what our school would have been like.”

The clean-up was a rough experience for the cafeteria staff.

“It took all day and the smell was horrible,” Brooks said. “We had lots of help from some of our cafeteria staff, custodians, and administrators from Sevier and Central Office.”

Despite the clean-up, at least some of the smell stuck around for students to notice the following day.

“It stunk very badly,” 7th grade student Lyric Wolfe said. “It smelled like garbage.”

Another 7th grade student, Braylant Minnick, agreed.

“It smelled like poo poo,” he said.

It took two days to replace the lost food, but the price was steep. Sevier lost just under $9,000 in groceries.

“An alarm usually alerts us, but when the fuse blew it didn’t work,” Brooks said.

While more food was on the way, Sevier borrowed food from fellow Kingsport middle school Ross N. Robinson. When students returned from break the following day, they received a bagged lunch.

“I didn’t eat,” Wolfe said. “I don’t like bagged lunches.”

Jonah Overbay, a 7th grade student, agreed.

“I was thinking that it was a shame we couldn’t have done any better to keep the food safe,” he said.

The cafeteria staff is determined that losing so much food will not happen again.

“We have several people keeping an eye on it now and will keep the inventory low before we go on breaks in the future,” Brooks said.

Students also had some suggestions about how to prevent this problem in the future.

“Maybe we need a back-up freezer with some back-up food,” Wolfe said.

Brooks, for her part, is thankful for the help she received.

“I would like to thank all of those that helped us with the cleanup,” she said. “We’re truly blessed to have such an amazing community here at Sevier and our awesome administrators.”