Elementary school assists with freezer outage

COLFAX — Jennings Elementary School is temporarily housing $10,000 worth of frozen meat in their freezer for Council on Aging after their big freezer broke down on Tuesday, July 23.

According to Badger, the freezer housed all of the frozen senior meal products and food that is distributed to the 13 Whitman County Pantry locations.

“There is probably about 400 to 500 pounds worth of frozen food for our senior meals and our pantry give outs that had to be moved,” said Badger.

Council on Aging Nutrition Coordinator Terri Badger said that the food pantry freezer is approximately 12 years old and just went out. “We partnered with the school to use the walk in freezer for the summer,” she said.

Badger said that COAST Manager Aly Sterman contacted Colfax School Superintendent Jerry Pugh to coordinate the efforts to preserve the food. “We’re very thankful to the District Office and Jerry Pugh for helping us coordinate that,” she said, adding that Colfax School Maintenance Aaron Wahannell was instrumental in helping them clear up space to store the food.

“It was no big deal,” Sterman said about contacting Pugh, “I just gave him a call and helped me get in contact with Aaron.”

“We’re in the process of getting a new compressor,” said Badger, “It’s over $9,000 for a new compressor.”

Both Badger and Sterman said they were extremely thankful to Wahannell for helping them figure out relocating the frozen food. “Big shout out to him, we’re very appreciative,” said Badger.

“He even helped us unload into the freezer to make sure everything was as cold as possible,” Sterman said.

According to Sterman, the school has been extremely helpful in getting them in contact with who is available if they need to come down there last minute for emergency food boxes.

“We’re very thankful that they were able do it last minute,” said Sterman, “Especially since we didn’t have any timeline for how long we would need it.”