School kitchens run on consistency, safety, and space. Pam Haupt knows this firsthand. With 20+ years in K–12 foodservice and prior hands-on experience specifying Cambro shelving in multiple districts, she led wall-shelving upgrades at Columbia Heights Public Schools to boost organization and efficiency across tight storage rooms. In this Q&A, Pam explains why wall shelving was the right move, how her team uses it day to day, and the biggest improvements they have seen.
Coming in near the end of COVID, Pam says she saw an opportunity to invest in efficiency: “We had a fund balance to put back into our aging schools to make them as efficient as possible. I prioritized areas with inefficiency, specifically dry storage at our two largest schools.” That led to a full redesign at the middle school in the summer of 2023 to 2024, which she “loved,” followed by a larger project at the high school the next summer. As for why Cambro wall shelving, it was already on her shortlist from prior roles and a trusted Cambro rep: “I’ve had a great relationship with Laurence for years. He walked the space and I described what I needed for the design. He was super helpful getting quotes so I could review plans before bids, then the rest happened without any glitches.”
Pam was confident from day one because she had already used Cambro shelving in previous districts and knew its “durability, washability, [and] flexibility.” Today, the district’s two largest storage areas use high density track shelving systems, while at Columbia Academy “there’s one track system and the entire perimeter has shelving.” She notes they also use Cambro shelving “in all three elementary schools in the walk-in freezer and cooler,” and the flexibility to adjust shelf heights and redeploy mobile units has made the layout easy to adapt as inventory changes.
Pam points to flexibility and cleanability as the standout advantages of the wall-mounted shelves: “It’s easy to move shelves to different heights depending on inventory,” and the team can “use higher shelves for lighter items,” which keeps storage logical and easy to scan. Staff feedback has been consistently positive. “They’re big fans,” she says, in part because “we can run the shelves through the dish machine with no problem.”
Pam says the biggest change “has been organization.” Building on that momentum, she adds, “We are planning a large kitchen remodel at Valley View Elementary, and wall shelving will be in the plan.”
Wall shelving delivered exactly what Columbia Heights needed: cleaner organization. Pam’s team values the flexibility to adjust shelf heights, the durability that holds up in daily service, and the cleanability that keeps standards high.
For more info on Cambro’s Elevation Series Wall Shelving visit Cambro.com or contact your local Cambro rep today.
Author: Felix Bazgan is the Director of Digital Marketing at Cambro.
