Library explores teaching kitchen

Board hears culinary program report

FAYETTEVILLE — Library board members heard how a culinary program could fit in with the plans for expansion.

Melissa Terry, master’s student in public administration at the University of Arkansas, went over a report she put together during the board’s Monday meeting. The report covers possibilities for a teaching kitchen, educational garden, edible native landscaping, greenhouse and deli at the library. It also explores what other libraries have done with culinary programs.

Terry spoke of a closedloop food system in which food used at the teaching kitchen and deli would be grown on-site or locally, and food waste used as compost. Terry suggested bringing in Karin Endy, a consultant who helped design the kitchen for Brightwater in Bentonville, which is the culinary school for Northwest Arkansas Community College.

Executive Director David Johnson described a teaching kitchen as a place for students to learn how to prepare food with a functioning restaurant for patrons. The kitchen is included in the plans for the expansion that have been presented to the public.

The library is pursuing a partnership between Fayetteville Public Schools and

Brightwater to set up a program at the library’s teaching kitchen. High school students could earn community college credits, like with similar programs in the Rogers and Bentonville school districts, according to Terry’s report.

In addition to the teaching kitchen and deli housed within the expanded library, a greenhouse and garden could go on an unused acre south of the building. The library’s 82,500-square-foot expansion reaches 3 acres into the 4-acre piece of land to the south, leaving 1 acre open. Terry included the possibility of a 10-room guest house on the acre, which could serve as a revenue generator from overnight guests.

The next step is a feasibility study to outline details such as curriculum and use of space within the kitchen. Terry said she hoped to get a report ready for the board to consider in March.

The use of that leftover acre is still up in the air, Johnson said. The library’s nonprofit foundation will work to bring a proposal to the board that will best serve patrons, he said.

Voters approved a millage increase in 2016 to pay for about $26 million of a proposed $49 million expansion to double the library’s size. The Arkansas Supreme Court in 2017 ruled in favor of a $2 million sale between Washington Regional Medical Center and the library’s foundation for the 4 acres south of the existing building.

The expanded library is set to open in October next year.