Cover Story
Christian School Products Jan/Feb 2021 Cafeteria Design Impacts Student Participation
By Teri Wilson-Ruggles
The school cafeteria is frequented by a large majority of students every day. The space serves a primary purpose of providing a dining area to provide nutrition to all who participate.
However, as the need arises, these spaces have had to be transformed into versatile multi-purpose spaces due to increasing lack of space in schools. Since the primary use is generally for a cafeteria, nutrition directors are focused on serving nutritious meals to as many students as efficiently as they can.
In the last few years, it has become increasingly important for schools to be creative with their dining resources, even more so in the current environment. Cafeteria space is evolving to be further away from the utilitarian and antiquated, old school “get in, get out” environments.
Outdoor Seating and Furniture
Getzen is Palmer Hamilton's durable, functional, and weather-resistant outdoor site furnishings. Getzen provides different types of metal fabricated outdoor furnishings. These quality manufactured solutions can easily upgrade outdoor settings at schools, parks, churches, and even homes.
- Expand your classroom outdoors
- Add capacity to your lunchroom
- Personalize with name and logo

Palmer Hamilton Design provides a turn-key service, including pre-design consultation with students and staff, design presentations of layout and graphics and selection of furnishings all the way through manufacturing and installation– all coordinated and managed by one team.

PHabLAB by Palmer Hamilton is a project-based learning (PBL) environment that combines collaboration, design thinking, and digital fabrication for the purpose of exploration and complex problem solving.
All academic disciplines can leverage a PHabLAB to teach STEAM fundamentals and career/technical skills.
Palmer Hamilton provides smart, versatile and beautiful furnishing solutions to K-12, higher education, commercial markets and libraries. We began manufacturing high quality cafeteria tables for schools more than 65 years ago and quickly became the industry leader in innovation, selection and service. Over the years, our product lines evolved to include mobile tables, wall pocket systems, outdoor furniture, food court furniture, library furniture and décor—all designed to be as durable and safe as they are stylish and easy-to-use.