Nearly $90,000 in equipment upgrades are slated for the Culinary Arts program at W.C. Miller Collegiate in Altona. A grant from the province's Skills Strategy Equipment Enhancement Fund (SSEEF) worth $52,844 will cover the majority of the cost while a grant from Border Land School Division will make up the difference.

Instructor Kip Alexander says this project will modernize the facility, replacing aging equipment that's been hanging over their heads for years.

"With our budgets that we have we just update here-and-there but it doesn't get that one shot where everything looks nice. This equipment that's being replaced was put into this wing of the school back in the early seventies...and what I was told is that they bought used stuff so they likely bought stuff from the sixties."

Among the items being replaced are a griddle and deep fryer, a gas range and stove, a proofer and a new baker's oven. Alexander explains that the current oven used for the baking program will be re-purposed and moved to the cooking side. He says this should improve some efficiencies within the kitchen.

Alexander adds the various new pieces of equipment will also be more eco-friendly, requiring less natural gas and/or electricity.

He notes news of the upgrades has created quite the buzz among the students, adding the new equipment will be installed during spring break and will offer the students a fresh start of sorts in the middle of the semester.

"They look at some of these older things, we clean it and it doesn't look clean. Now we're thinking with the new look - it's clean, it's fresh - and they're going to take some ownership of it and get excited about what they're working with."

Alexander says with this upgrades, the kitchen facility will closer resemble the newer facility used by Culinary Arts students at Northlands Parkway Collegiate in Winkler.