Cornerstone enjoys upgraded kitchen facility

Like so many other kitchen remodels, the Cornerstone Rescue Missions kitchen upgrade went a bit over budget and took longer than expected.

The end result, even with a $350,000 outlay and a seven-month time frame, was well worth it, according to staff members and diners who began using the Rapid City homeless shelter's new kitchen last week.

After months of serving sack lunches and borrowing kitchen space, Cornerstone chef Jamie Hagan was thrilled to serve a feast of ham and bean soup, fried chicken, pork with mushrooms over rice, fresh vegetables, salad and dessert to about 130 people at the first mid-day meal.

"I figured they've been suffering for a while now, so I sort of overdid it," Hagan said of his first day back in the improved kitchen.

"It's fantastic," he said. Hagan is enjoying all of the improvements, especially the custom-made stove vent that allows the 6-foot, 3-inch cook to stand at the six-burner, two-oven stove and not bump his head against the hood. "I had bruises on my head from the old one," he said.

All new stainless steel appliances fill the reconfigured space. To the left of the new stove is a double convection oven that allows Hagan to cook 14 sheet trays at once, a huge improvement over the four he used to be able to bake. Updates were also made to the electric, mechanical and plumbing systems.

There are new walk-in freezer and refrigerator units, each 12 feet by 8 feet, that give the kitchen staff two and a half times the cold storage of the old kitchen. In the serving and prep area, there is a double-door reach-in refrigerator and similar freezer unit. A tilt-skillet for frying large batches of meat will soon be installed.

The walls and floor were covered in coordinating porcelain tiles and non-skid pavers that improve the sanitation and safety of the kitchen, said architect Thomas Baffuto of Baffuto Architecttura. Along with cleanable ceiling tiles, the new surfaces make it much easier to keep a clean kitchen and pass health inspections.

"The primary goal of this was to redo it so it was more functional," he said. No square footage was added, but the newly streamlined and reconfigured space makes a huge difference in the size of the available work area. West Plains Engineering provided mechanical and electrical work on the project.

"Remodels are challenging, period," said Baffuto. "Decades of alterations had been buried in the building," he said. Cornerstone's kitchen is located in the basement of what was once the Rapid City city hall. The space contained numerous challenges, including a former holding cell for prisoners that had previously been turned into a walk-in cooler.

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Cornerstone enjoys upgraded kitchen facility