Two new container kitchens began serving Asados and Mexican food, on January 17 in the high and middle school cafeteria, to reduce lines and improve the capacity of the cafeteria.

The initial idea was to build a large cafeteria for Middle and High school students, especially when the Class of 2025 entered Middle School, as they are a larger group. It was intended to be 3 blocks; however, the budget only made it possible to build 2. During the pandemic, there was uncertainty with returning to school, so the idea could not be applied.

”The third ship was supposed to be built when the F classrooms entered high school, to reduce the delay and increase the seats in the cafeteria,” Juan Fernando Mesa, head of logistics at TCS said.

Colombia is going through a severe container crisis that complicated the lookout for containers. It also has affected the economy tremendously and led to great concern in the staff when everyone came back from doing virtual school.

“The crisis in Colombia about the containers made it difficult to get them, we had to wait almost 6 months to be able to buy 2 containers,” Mesa said.

The idea of containers as kitchens attracted people’s attention to a youthful school environment  It was a more reliable route to choose and try something different other than a military-style image.

“We could do something different, not only a cafeteria with the same symmetrical chairs and design but to do something crazy for teenagers to enjoy, that’s where we got the idea of the containers,” Mesa said.

The development of each section was really expensive costing around 2 million COP. This caused the staff to search for modern and economic ideas, plus the need for space caused ideas to resort to the container with an average of 118 million pesos invested.

“The lack of budget, basically another ship costs 2 billion pesos and the pandemic greatly affected this,” Mesa said.

The containers were made to help create more mobility and efficiency in the lines of each kitchen. An analysis made by staff showed that the last person in line to eat lunch took approximately 27-30 minutes last in line with a 50-55 minutes break; this was of the maximum importance for the implementation of the kitchen/containers.

“I really like the container system because it helps reduce lines, but I prefer the items they had before the pandemic like sandwiches, hot dogs, and burgers,” Amalia Gomez, Grade 11, said.

The containers were planned to give an open-air atmosphere which will be developed in the future by adding a roof and metal railings that will give the containers a feeling similar to Los Trailers in Llanogrande.

“In approximately 10 days, you will see that much more beautiful metal railings will arrive, in addition to this in the future we hope to put a roof on part of the containers so that it looks much more rustic and much more youthful,” Mesa said.