Ridley School District Receives School Nutrition Foundation Grant for New Alto-Sham Holding Cabinet

The School Nutrition Foundation (SNF) announced Ridley School District in Pennsylvania as the recipient of the Alto-Sham Equipment Grant for a $9,000 holding cabinet. 

The 2025 SNF Equipment Grant program was created to assist school meal programs in addressing staffing, budget, or operational issues. Additionally, the program is designed to help schools expand fresh and scratch-made menu options and enhance the cafeteria experience to better nourish students. 

Ridley’s Leedom Elementary School applied to solve food capacity challenges. Meals transferred to the school must be held at proper temperatures to ensure food safety and preserve quality. However, their old warmer was 15 years old and unable to provide consistent, even warming of transported hot menu items.

“My staff would become frantically worried that sufficient hot meals would not be available for our students,” said Dimitra Barrios, Foodservice Director for Ridley School District. “Having a new warmer will ease their minds and enable them to consistently stay on schedule without having to execute additional reheating processes.”

Alto-Shaam has donated a 1200-UP holding cabinet to Ridley. With gentle, radiant Halo Heat® technology, the holding cabinet will boost her staff’s morale, reduce food waste, and ensure consistent hot food for students.

Alto-Shaam’s donation was spearheaded by third generation Alto-Shaam family member, Ryan Hansen, Ryan’s grandfather, Jerry Maahs, founded the company 70 years ago, and invented Halo Heat technology featured in the holding cabinet awarded to Ridley. Ryan works at Alto-Shaam as a Regional Sales Manager for the North Central U.S. territory. He is also a member of the company’s Social Responsibility Committee and Maahs Family Foundation. 

“It’s an honor to give back to schools and support the incredible work they do for students,” said Ryan. “Alto-Shaam is proud to empower Ridley School District with the tools needed to deliver quality meals and enhance the daily experience of their students.”

As the recipient of the Alto-Sham Equipment Grant, Ridley School District will be delivered the new holding cabinet to benefit program operations in the upcoming school year.

“The Ridley team is committed to consistently providing a high-quality meal experience for students and we’re grateful this grant can help them achieve that goal at Leedom Elementary,” said SNF Chair, Becky Domokos-Bays, PhD, RD, SNS.

Discover practical solutions for your school kitchens - visit Alto-Shaam at Booth #1955 during the School Nutrition Association's Annual National Conference in July.