June 24 – 25 • Greensboro, NC
North Carolina’s annual gathering for school nutrition professionals offering professional development, networking, and an exhibit floor featuring the latest innovations in K-12 food service equipment and products.
June 25 – 29 • McCormick Place, Chicago
Shape what’s next for your library!
ALA’s 150th Anniversary conference—the largest library event in the world—bringing together thousands of library professionals to celebrate, learn, and shape the future of libraries through keynotes, sessions, and a major exhibition. See us in Booth 1445.
June 28 – 30 • Grapevine, TX
IGNITE THE LIGHT
Texas’s premier school nutrition event connecting foodservice professionals, directors, and industry vendors for professional development, peer networking, and showcasing the latest products and innovations for Texas school meal programs. Visit us in Booth 101.
Palmer Hamilton Esports and PlayVS Partner to Empower Scholastic Esports Programs Nationwide.
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Palmer Hamilton is proud to announce a new partnership with PlayVS, North America’s leading scholastic esports and gaming platform. Palmer Hamilton Esports, along with our partner RESPAWN, will serve as the Official Desk and Gaming Chair Partner of PlayVS and the PlayVS College League (PCL). We will be a collaborative, trusted resource for the PlayVS community, providing consultative services, furniture and resources to elevate scholastic esports programs at any stage in their journey. Together, we’re bringing next-level esports environments and experiences to schools and colleges across the country. Creating Esports Spaces for Students to Learn, Lead and Compete Through this collaboration, Palmer Hamilton Esports and RESPAWN will engage directly with program directors, coaches, and administrators in the PlayVS ecosystem. Our mission: to help schools design high-quality, ergonomic, and engaging gaming spaces that boost the student experience. “This partnership between Palmer Hamilton, RESPAWN, and PlayVS helps us take esports in education to the next level,” says Jeff Palumbo, Director of Esports at Palmer Hamilton. “Together, we’re creating more than just gaming spaces — we’re building pathways for students to learn, lead, and compete in environments that inspire teamwork, inclusivity, and academic engagement.” Palmer Hamilton Esports joins The Collective, PlayVS’s exclusive network of trusted partners that provides valuable resources and support to the K12 and College esports communities. As a member of The Collective, Palmer Hamilton Esports will have a dedicated presence on the PlayVS platform and website, showcasing a curated list of recommended product options, including considerations for programs of all budget levels, as well as the ability to request free collaborative consultations from an experienced professional. “Creating spaces where students can thrive, compete, and build community is core to our mission,” said PlayVS’ Director of Scholastics, Josh Cobb. “Palmer Hamilton Esports’s expertise in educational environments, combined with RESPAWN’s leadership in gaming furniture, makes this partnership a natural fit for advancing scholastic esports.” Our partnership with PlayVS is setting a new standard for how schools approach esports and do more with their space to create greater educational value by blending competitive excellence with comfort and design. |
From Prop to Prosperity: Lessons Learned from the Makerspace
By Taylor Ditzfeld, Collaborate Lab & Outreach Liaison
Many students who tour a college end up choosing their future school based on standout features they see during their visit — like a climbing wall in the gym or a film studio tucked into an academic building. But once they enroll, it’s not uncommon for those exciting amenities to go unused.
For a while, that was the case with our makerspace at State Fair Community College (SFCC).
SFCC serves about 3,700 students across eight campuses in Missouri, plus online learners. One of the most visually striking and technically advanced resources we offer is our makerspace, which is outfitted with 3D printers, laser engravers, vinyl cutters and more. Its cutting-edge capabilities and modern design made it a showstopper on every campus tour, but ironically, prospective students on tours were often the only ones regularly visiting the space.
That’s no longer true.
Over the past two years, we’ve seen tremendous growth — not only in student and staff participation, but also in engagement from K-12 schools and community partners. This shift didn’t happen by accident. For anyone looking to transform a seldom-used lab into a thriving hub of creativity, here are a few key lessons we’ve learned.
Building Reputation
The first step was simple but essential: make sure people know the space is for them.
We worked closely with our admissions and tour teams, encouraging guides to emphasize that the lab was open to all students, not just professors or STEM majors. High-tech spaces like ours can seem intimidating, especially to students who don’t consider themselves tech-savvy. However, by explicitly stating that it was a hands-on, welcoming environment for everyone, we started breaking down that barrier.
We also had to shift perceptions about how the space functioned. Many people thought of the lab as an order fulfillment center where instructors or students submitted jobs and the makerspace team would build the final product. While this wasn’t technically how we operated, the assumption persisted until we changed the narrative. We made it clear that our goal was to guide users through the creation process themselves. By supporting SFCC’s community in designing and producing their own work, we empowered them to build confidence and walk away with impressive, personalized projects they could truly take ownership of.
Today, the lab is busier than ever, with students and staff using it to explore new ideas and gain hands-on experience in ways that complement their learning.
Beyond skill-building, the makerspace has also become a powerful tool for strengthening community.
For example, our adult learning program recently visited the space for a team-building experience. Though the program isn’t designed as an academic refresher, their visit showed how effective hands-on projects can be for bringing people together, regardless of age or background.
Our space was designed from the beginning with collaboration in mind. When we opened in Spring 2022, we worked with Palmer Hamilton to ensure the layout would foster connection. Instead of classroom-style rows, we opted for high-top and group tables, encouraging discussion, brainstorming, and teamwork.
Palmer Hamilton also helped us expand our impact with younger learners. Its INVENTORCLOUD platform provides ready-to-use, step-by-step projects for K-12 students across various skill levels. We’ve hosted field trips where students created everything from custom dog tags and laser-cut catapults to 3D-printed space modules. These accessible, guided projects have made technology feel exciting and approachable for students of all ages.
Within SFCC, the collaborative spirit is so strong that we’ve affectionately nicknamed the makerspace the “Collab Lab.”
One upcoming project really captures that ethos. Students in our Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) program are learning how to adapt toys for children with mobility challenges. They’ve partnered with students in our Engineering Design Technology program to create custom adaptive switches. Using input from the OTA students, the engineering students are designing parts in Fusion 360, which will be 3D printed and then affixed to the toys. These will be donated to local children during the holidays — a meaningful, interdisciplinary effort that showcases the true power of collaboration.
As the lab’s internal use grew, we began looking outward and found new opportunities where we hadn’t expected them.
Originally, we assumed most local businesses already had access to advanced design and fabrication equipment. That turned out to be wrong. When we began reaching out and offering the makerspace as a resource, the response was overwhelmingly positive. Not only did it allow us to build stronger connections with the community, but it also boosted visibility for both our lab and our college.
Throughout this entire journey, Palmer Hamilton has remained a valued partner. From outfitting our space with collaborative furniture to supporting our K-12 programming with INVENTORCLOUD resources, their team has consistently helped us bring our vision to life. The PHabLab team in particular has offered ongoing encouragement, ideas and support to keep us moving forward.
If you’re looking to elevate the impact of your makerspace, I can’t recommend Palmer Hamilton enough. Growth takes time, but with a clear strategy, inclusive programming and strong partners, you can turn your makerspace from a tour stop into a vibrant, hands-on learning environment where creativity and community thrive.
Watch our YouTube series of Jeff Palumbo interviews.
Starting an esports program can seem like a daunting task. However, having the right pieces in place at the right time can be an almost guaranteed recipe for success. Finding where, what and who those pieces are is a matter of asking the right questions.
Where?
Location is an important first consideration when designing an esports space. This can look different depending on the school environment. Colleges and universities tend to have a dedicated, unused space that they can convert into an esports lab, while K-12 schools may have to get creative or build esports capabilities into a multipurpose room that serves as a classroom during the day and esports lab after school lets out.
Once the space is located, an environmental approach to design helps ensure optimization for everyday use. How many people use it at once? How do you want to use this space? What type of lighting and automation would you like? These are just a few examples of questions that can help designers lay out the room to support the program.
What?
The components that go into an esports room can be separated into three categories: equipment, decor and the program itself. As a rule of thumb, I would recommend that programs start with at least two gaming consoles, two TVs and six PCs to allow team gameplay with any of the top esports titles. Spaces can be built up from less, and most programs grow to include more, but this is a good minimum.
DIY design and management is usually just fine for clubs, but when the esports community at a school becomes a “program” with funding behind it, there is more emphasis on measurable results. Professional designers can create a consistent feel in the space that draws people in, while esports advisors can help with operational management, engagement strategies and current program trends to keep your program relevant.
Who?
Professionals are critical for setup, but the most important person to the longevity of an esports program is the coordinator in the school community. Esports teams do not run themselves, and a dedicated adult supervisor is the key to keeping them going. A standard operating procedure should also be designed so anyone can step in as needed. The students also play a role in growing the program. Once the esports team is established, many schools look to add esports curriculum into the classroom. Students can offer valuable insight into what courses would be most beneficial for them.
What’s Next?
While these tips are true across most applications, every school is different. There will be nuances to the space, community and program that are completely unique to you. That is why Palmer Hamilton prioritizes a consultative approach to esports with free advising, expertise and resources like our esports video series to ensure you are set up to succeed. Feel free to reach out to us, and we’ll schedule a time to chat with you about your program!
Palmer Hamilton is proud to have partnered with the Elkhorn School District to design, construct and install a new esports competition space. Elkhorn, a multiple Wisconsin state champion in esports, will be using the new space to expand student participation, encourage local competition between schools and provide community access to expand exposure to the benefits of offering esports in K-12 education.
Watch our video:
The space was designed for teamwork, with tables giving plenty of space for each active member.
Bringing school pride into the space, Palmer Hamilton’s design team created a modern backlit piece that allows for low lights while keeping the space safely bright.
From the outer window wall, with views into the space, the school branding was carried throughout the project.
By Preston Gardner, Chief Operating Officer
As a company in the education industry, we understand the value of fostering student passions and offering them pathways that align with their interests. That mentality is a driving factor in Palmer Hamilton’s partnership with Elkhorn High School in its youth apprenticeship program.
Every year, we work with the local school district to bring aboard 1-2 student apprentices who come to work for Palmer Hamilton as part of their school curriculum. This paid opportunity provides students with real work experience that allows them to develop skills they will utilize for the rest of their careers.
Palmer Hamilton is not the only company to utilize this program. During the 2024-25 school year, there were over 11,000 youth apprentices working at over 7,000 companies in the state of Wisconsin alone. Manufacturing had the second largest pool of participants, after health sciences, and the benefits for both students and companies are clear indications as to why.
Supporting Students
The goal of the youth apprenticeship program is to provide participants with as close to an authentic on-the-job experience as possible while accounting for their unique needs as students. Each apprentice is paired with a mentor within the company for their initial training, ongoing support and job shadowing. Along with offering a safety net for the mentee, this provides them with a model of what their career could look like if they continue to pursue this path.
metalworking industry
Over the past several decades, many schools have made incredible improvements to expanding education opportunities for students, with courses in skilled trades in addition to traditional subjects. Working with community partners in models such as the youth apprenticeship program can help further expand these capabilities. For example, one of the schools we work with offers both Welding 1 and Welding 2 as courses in the building. Students looking to pursue it further than what’s offered in the classroom can do so as apprentices.
For many students, the apprenticeship program offers confirmation that manufacturing is the path for them. However, for some, they find that it’s different from what they expected and ultimately not the right choice. We consider either outcome a success. A student turning away from a career in our industry may seem like an odd thing to celebrate, but it just means they’re one step closer to finding their best fit. An apprenticeship program allows them to either confirm or eliminate a career possibility without the cost of college or trade school and without the pressure of a full-time job.
In addition to the security to explore their passions in a trial-type setting, youth apprenticeships provide the chance for students to develop marketable skills. The technical skills required to do the job are important, and graduates of the program have a leg up when they enter the workforce. However, the soft skills developed from on-the-job experience are even more critical, no matter what career students decide to pursue. How to communicate and be responsible, time management and other fundamentals of what makes a great employee are paramount for young professionals entering the job market. The introduction to and development of these skills in the youth apprenticeship program sets them up for success in a way that is simply not possible in the classroom.
Growing the Industry
An apprenticeship program is highly beneficial to the student participants, but it also can have a positive impact on the industry at large. Labor shortages pose a significant challenge across most skilled trades, and furniture manufacturing is no exception. Youth apprentices who choose to stick with the industry leave the program prepared to enter the job market. Many stayed with Palmer Hamilton, and many have gone off to other companies. Either way, the industry is better for it.
Even those who don’t participate in the program are more likely to pursue skilled trades thanks to Palmer Hamilton’s involvement. Students are facing important decisions about their future at younger and younger ages. Our partnerships with local schools allow us to get in front of these students and show them the career pathways that are available to them. We often work with STEM/STEAM programs and other groups to bring kids into the facility and show them work opportunities that they may not have known about before.
Applications for these programs go beyond manufacturing. The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development’s Youth Apprenticeship site lists a variety of fields were students and companies have found success, including agriculture, arts and communications, hospitality, finance and public safety.
There is often hesitation among businesses to bring in high school students for a youth apprenticeship program. The thought is often that the students are simply too young and unprofessional, or that the employees working with them would be more babysitters than mentors. We had similar concerns while developing our youth apprenticeship program. However, we have seen first-hand that, with the right support in place, high schoolers are more than capable of taking on this responsibility. We would encourage all companies to talk to other businesses and research the possibilities. You may have the opportunity to partner with schools and develop a program that is enriching to both the students and your company, while investing in the future of the work force.
By Leah Downey, PHDesign Manager
School pride, at least in the traditional sense, is not as trendy with students as it used to be. Decking out a space with mascots, logos and school colors is not a priority for most kids.
This shift is far from universal. There are still several school communities, including the students, that embrace the school spirit design style. However, for those that don’t, there are still opportunities to celebrate the community in a different way.
Looking Outside
No school exists in isolation. One way that a cafeteria can expand the definition of “school pride” beyond mascots is by searching for inspiration out in the community. From the smallest farm towns to the densest cities, every area has a story to tell.
Looking to the past can be great way to inform a cafeteria design. A previous school space that Palmer Hamilton worked on was in a district with a connection to the moon landing. The final design included several subtle references to that unique bit of history, including textures in the graphics that imitated the surface of the moon and a space-inspired color scheme.
Natural elements from the region can be another great inspiration. Schools in mountainous areas can incorporate rock textures and silhouettes of ranges into the design, while schools near the coast can include waves and bright colors. The easiest way to bring nature into the space is with an emphasis on windows and natural lighting. Even if windows are limited, intentionally arranging furniture and decals can draw students’ attention to them and bring the outside in.
Incorporating local culture, traditions and monuments into the design can also help students feel connected to the broader community. Industries, too, can inform themes of the space. For example, schools in agricultural communities have often incorporated images of fresh produce. Not only does this celebrate a unique element of where the students live, it also expresses pride that much of what is served on the lunch line came from local businesses.
Looking Inside
Design can additionally be used to express pride in the space itself and what it offers to the school. Food service directors work hard to provide healthy, delicious meals to hundreds of kids. They are often developing innovative initiatives and new menu items to keep the offerings exciting and ensure students are well fed. Both the design and layout of the cafeteria can be used to support the functionality of the space and enhance user experience for both students and staff.
In addition to celebrating agricultural communities, depicting fresh ingredients in the design can reinforce the nutrition that students have access to in the space. It is also a way to express the variety of options available to students and get them excited about what they will be eating.
On the more practical side, understanding the food service initiatives is also important for optimizing furniture layout. Many programs have found success in a self-service model where students are given more freedom to make choices for their meal. Foods like build-your-own burrito bowls and salad bars are common examples. If this, or any other style of service, is a priority for schools, the placement of the furniture can be done in a way that best supports changes in traffic flow, graphics can be added for any necessary explanation, or any other unique solution can be incorporated to best support the experience.
Looking Good
Just because the school fight song isn’t printed above the serving line does not mean that the cafeteria cannot be a celebration of the community. Designing a space that is authentic, inclusive and truly unique to the people it serves can come from many inspirations.
This is why Palmer Hamilton takes a full-service approach to design and prioritizes meeting with multiple stakeholders. The better we know a school community, the better we can represent it in the final space design and the more everyone will feel pride in their cafeteria.
Watch our YouTube series of Jeff Palumbo interviews.
Though it may not seem that way for people unfamiliar with online gaming, esports did not burst onto the scene overnight. The historical roots of modern esports stretch back for decades, and a series of gradual changes have all come together to create the industry we know today. Learning about these origins can help garner a deeper appreciation for esports, while also developing an understanding of where your program fits into its ongoing story.
Gaming’s Past
Organized esports’ beginnings can be linked with the invention of video games. From the early days in the 1970s, a large component of the appeal of games like Pong and Pinball was the opportunity presented to players to compete for the highest score. Gaming quickly became a social activity, where groups of friends could organize, gather and best each other in friendly rivalry.
About 10 years ago, game developers in South Korea and Japan began expanding on the community aspect of gaming with more robust, cooperative multiplayer capabilities. These advances exploded in the international market and created an entire industry around team-based esports, second only to soccer in its popularity as a competitive activity.
Our Present
With the growth in esports, K-12 and higher education schools have increasingly seen the value in offering students opportunities to explore that interest. In higher education, this is largely driven by admission and retention. Recent research has shown that while only about 30 percent of college freshmen have played a traditional sport, 90 percent have played video games. Dedicated esports facilities offer students the chance to engage with each other in a face-to-face atmosphere or participate on competitive teams instead of gaming individually from their room. When students find a community on campus, they are happier, healthier and more likely to find a reason to stay and flourish, which in turn helps the school financially.
In public K-12, where admission is more guaranteed, the appeal of launching an esports program is often the bridge it creates to essential life skills, health and wellness. Online gaming is a lot like social media. Players can connect with anyone in the world and communicate online with anonymity, which could produce negative interactions for young people still developing their social intelligence. Offering gaming in a supervised and secure environment allows students to explore interests and potential career paths while also developing healthy interpersonal skills.
Your Future
As esports programs continue to expand into school settings, they exhibit the same theme that drove developers to expand multiplayer capabilities in the gaming market: together is always better. The most important way to ensure success is to approach the set-up of an esports program by focusing on student success and working with partners who can apply those values from start to finish.
For a more expanded explanation of these concepts and details on how you can apply them to your own esports program, check out our video series.
Watch our YouTube series of Jeff Palumbo interviews.
Palmer Hamilton’s recent expansion into the esports market may seem like a departure from cafeterias and common spaces. However, with a closer inspection of the fundamental building blocks of a Palmer Hamilton project, it is actually a perfect fit.
Winning Combo
One of Palmer Hamilton’s key differentiators is our full-service approach. We provide high-quality, durable furniture products, complemented by a strong design team, to enhance and beautify any room. With these resources available through a single point of contact, schools can create a cohesive environment that engages students and fosters a sense of community.
Creating a welcoming and engaging environment is a focus for the majority of schools I work with, and it is also a top priority for their students and community members. Like cafeterias and other common spaces, design and furniture are key components of achieving that goal in an esports space. However, the additional infrastructure needs of student engagement, and building competitive teams, while overlapping project-based learning and career opportunities take it a step further. Palmer Hamilton’s esports services are not just about creating a nice space, they are about providing the resources to develop a lasting program that students want to be a part of. This includes recommendations for equipment, training resources, operational management insights and ongoing advice to ensure success. As your subject matter expert, having worked with dozens of higher education and K-12 institutions, I offer the final piece of the esports puzzle, assisting your school with the end-to-end process of building or expanding a successful esports program.
What Esports Means to Me
Everyone’s journey in esports looks a little different, but the passion we all hold for the community is what brings us together. Yes, competition is usually part of gaming, but the games are just an activity that we all agree upon enjoying. When I was growing up, there wasn’t a place at school where my fellow gamers and I could be ourselves. In fact, gaming was considered by most to be something that only “nerds” did unless it was a traditional sports title like Madden. Times have changed, and gaming is now an integral part of contemporary culture, but that doesn’t mean everyone accepts or understands that. At the most basic level, esports offer any student the opportunity to make friends and feel part of something bigger than themselves while being accepted for who they are.
However, through my years of working in esports and now with Palmer Hamilton, I am seeing the incredible progress that has been made in both the attitudes surrounding esports and the resources becoming available for it. More and more schools are onboarding esports environments where students are welcome to explore and develop their interests while also enjoying the health and wellness benefits of participating in extracurricular activities and introducing students to options they may not have had or known of previously.
Seeing the impact that Palmer Hamilton can have on a school’s esports program is what drives all of us to continue growing in this field. It has also inspired us to create a video series answering common questions about esports programs. The first three videos, which go even more in-depth about why esports are important to me, Palmer Hamilton and the schools we work with, are available now. I hope you enjoy them. Please feel free to ask questions in the comments, and we’ll create more videos to address them.
The thought of including a makerspace can be intimidating. You know you should have one in your school, but where do you start?
A successful makerspace needs to start and end with essential steps. By following these steps, a school can feel confident that their makerspace has been designed and built to fit their needs exactly.
PHabLab starts with an in-depth conversation about the goals a school has for the space. Some don’t know their goals other than to have a lab. Through this initial counseling, clients learn about the details, inclusions, timeline and finished space that would be ideal for them. This goal setting is an essential first step in the process, and a school needs the experience of a partner who understands, practices and excels at this.
Once that goal is established, the school is presented with a design book that includes the detailed plan and cost. This valuable resource not only consolidates all the information, but it can also be used for grant proposals and board presentations. Palmer Hamilton serves as a resource and a subject matter expert for the school, supporting them in presentations, answering questions and making the process clear to interested parties.
These steps are essential for accurate lab design, creation and usage. PHabLab guides a client through these steps, educating them at each step of the process.
Once the contract is signed, the order is filled – with every element of the PHabLab tailored for that school. From the devices to furniture and even the school-specific art on the walls, everything is being created for that school’s PHabLab.
There are a lot of pieces that are included in a PHabLab and many schools worry that installation will take too long and interfere with their schedule. PHabLab installs the custom labs over two days so they don’t have to miss a beat. School departments that need to function with the new lab have already been working with PHabLab, ensuring connectivity and operation as soon as it’s installed.
PHabLab experts arrive on-site for a thorough two-day orientation on the usage of digital fabrication tools and software, preparing school personnel to be effective makerspace teachers. This support continues for a year after installation where additional professional development is available, as well the ability to bring on student certifications through NC3. Another way to jump-start PHabLab is by utilizing the makerspace curriculum, INVENTORCLOUD. This comprehensive platform helps teachers facilitate all the lessons and projects students need to succeed in this space.
One recent client in California, the San Jacinto Unified School District, went through these steps with PHabLab and their learning lab is now being used by hundreds of students. They say that the counseling, expertise and finished product exceeded their expectations. To hear learn more about this successful partnership, watch the video and listen to the educators in their own words.
The renovation largely involved giving the space a more open feel. Remnants from a time when the cafeteria doubled as an auditorium (small windows, white-grey color scheme and tiered steps) were still present, crowding the room and detracting from the students’ experience. Palmer Hamilton’s design concept needed to support the architectural changes to these features by promoting a modern, open look and taking advantage of the increased natural lighting.
Palmer Hamilton’s design team effectively worked with the architects to harmoniously deliver a space that exceeded student expectations. Elements of the design included natural wood finishes, a variety of seating options, additional lunch lines and soft lighting that all work well with the openness of the new space. The new design is intentionally limited in school colors, which principal Tim Shoaff said was done to “give them a space at school that doesn’t feel like school.” And students agree. Comments on the new space have made a clear improvement from “institutional” in the initial survey to “elegant,” “bougie,” and “Starbucks-like.”
Photos of opening day courtesy of Kokomo Tribune.
Download the PDFPalmer Hamilton, a full-service provider of turnkey furniture and design solutions specializing in K-12, has added esports spaces as an offering for schools featuring gaming chairs and desks designed by RESPAWN, a manufacturer of furniture designed for gaming.
Esports, or competitive video gaming, has had a growing presence as a team sport at the professional, college and now middle and high school levels. Esports’ popularity can be attributed to its appeal to a population of students who are not drawn to traditional extracurricular activities.
“We have found in our work with RESPAWN that most of the students who join an esports team do not participate in any other team activities,” says Palmer Hamilton CEO John Gardner. “Not only does an esports space allow these kids to find a community within the school, but the encouragement and development of an official program can help many of them find lifelong careers in the gaming industry.”
By incorporating the multiple lines of gaming chairs and desks offered by RESPAWN, Palmer Hamilton designers can expand their offerings to accommodate the growing demand for esports programs and spaces in K-12. Spaces incorporating new esports products and design services can be independent or incorporated into a new or existing STEM/STEAM lab.
Schools working with Palmer Hamilton on these and any other spaces are encouraged to involve key stakeholders, including faculty, staff and students, in the design of the project to create a space that reflects the unique character of the community. In addition to the new esports capabilities, Palmer Hamilton designers can work with schools to enhance cafeterias, media centers, STEM/STEAM labs and other common areas.
See our Esports Environments section for more information.
At Palmer Hamilton, we strive to provide quality furniture and décor solutions that help K-12 schools do more with their space. Our true mission, however, is to deliver environments that encourage collaboration and give every student a place where they feel welcomed and supported.
This mission was the driving factor in developing Palmer Hamilton’s new partnership with RESPAWN, a supplier of high-quality furniture for esports. The esports industry has grown exponentially over the past few decades, and its influence has had an impact on K-12 schools with many schools adding video games as learning tools in curriculum and offering competitive esports teams as an extracurricular opportunity for students. As this presence continues to grow, having a dedicated space for esports can ensure that a new demographic of students finds a home within the school and resources they can use to find future success in a growing industry
Inclusion for Today
A 2019 survey taken by the Aspen Institute for Project Play, a non-profit that works to develop healthy communities through sports, found that in 2018 only 38 percent of kids ages 6 to 12 played a team sport on a regular basis with the average child quitting sports entirely by age 11.1 Esports players see even lower participation rates in sports. Through its work with the Wisconsin High School Esports Association (WIHSEA), RESPAWN has found that 80 percent or more of the members in most esports programs do not participate in another team activity.
For the majority of these kids, esports are a chance to reap the social, mental and emotional health benefits of being on a team that they would not traditionally find. According to Health.gov, these benefits can include lower rates of anxiety and depression, higher cognitive function and even a reduced risk of suicide.2 This makes driving participation and supporting those who are already involved in esports an important responsibility for school administrations.
Getting students excited about esports starts with creating the right environment. A basketball program would not thrive if the playing space consisted of an outdoor, concrete court with a portable hoop. Players want a proper court with team colors on the walls, equipment they are excited to use every day and school pride exhibited throughout the space.
Esports is the same.
Many students who would be interested in joining an esports team likely already have a setup at home. Schools that develop an esports space with companies like Palmer Hamilton and RESPAWN offer replicated or even elevated performance spaces to invite student participation. School imagery can also be incorporated throughout the space to foster the pride and belonging that come with participating in an organized team activity for kids who may not always see themselves as representatives of their school’s spirit.
As schools embark on developing an esports space, Palmer Hamilton encourages them to consult with all stakeholders, including the students who will use it. Not only does this help them take further ownership of the space, but it also offers an opportunity for input from people who may want to get involved but are hesitant due to lack of representation. This is especially pertinent for young women. Though esports has become more even in the gender makeup, the population is still largely male dominated. Inviting women and students from other non-majority demographics to make their mark on the space from the beginning helps give everyone who wants to participate a welcoming environment.
Careers for Tomorrow
In many cases, the activities that kids participate in during their days in K-12 are much more than fun ways to pass the time. Thousands of former high school athletes are now playing professionally, coaching or finding other ways to turn their passion into a lifelong career.
An interest in esports opens the door to more career opportunities than almost any other school activity. Market Watch reported in 2021 that the video games industry grew to surpass the combined market share of both film and North American sports, and the jobs in this massive enterprise are both numerous and lucrative.3 Having the resources and support for students can help them find and build careers they are passionate about.
Esports spaces can also be part of a larger effort to encourage students in STEM/STEAM fields. Having a full room dedicated to esports in the school would be ideal but may not be viable with budget and space constraints. Instead, schools can work with brands that specialize in STEM/STEAM, such as PHabLab, to create multi-purpose spaces for both experiential learning and extracurricular activities. Either way, this makes participation in a variety of potential fields of learning, new extracurriculars and eventual career paths much more attractive and attainable for every student.
1: Survey: Kids quit most sports by age 11 – Project Play
Richard Hein, Director of Marketing – Palmer Hamilton
No one knows an industry better than those who are in it every day, and we are lucky to work directly with some of the most experienced and well-versed professionals in education. Throughout our decades as a full-service furniture manufacturer, Palmer Hamilton has built up our own wealth of knowledge entirely thanks to these relationships with schools and dealers. For our part, we hope to provide the same value back to them as a trusted partner, and this two-way exchange of expertise is the cornerstone of our business model.
You Learn Something New Every Day
Cafeterias are the biggest rooms in a school with uses beyond the single purpose of feeding students
Our ongoing relationships with important industry contacts are crucial to keeping us up to date on the latest trends. Over time, we’ve learned the importance of flexibility in a space, especially in smaller schools. Cafeterias are one of the biggest rooms in a school, and many administrations feel they should have uses beyond the single purpose of feeding students. The right furniture and design can make the room multifunctional for meetings, community events and other purposes, extending the value that the room provides to the school. STEM/STEAM and esports spaces are seeing a similar trend, with many schools looking to combine multiple educational media into one space. This design style started in university settings but has since gained traction in high schools with an emphasis on multidisciplinary education.
Individual accounts also offer important insight on a more personal level. Each job is unique, and there are nuances to the community and the space that will influence the final design. Our designers take the time to meet with multiple stakeholders, including students, teachers, custodians, facility managers and IT. This approach ensures that every question is answered, input is gathered and the designers have a complete picture of what they’re working with.
School for Schools
Our field guide was developed to catch the details that can be missed.
Developing an effective method for getting the information we need involves a lot of learning from our past. We have always been thorough, but small details can slip through the cracks when not enough detail is given. Small details like outlets and planned upgrades can seem unimportant in the initial intake, but they can have an impact on the final design. Our design team is adaptable enough to navigate these forgotten factors when they pop up down the road, and they also ensure they never happen again. This leads to new questions for the stakeholders in future accounts to avoid facing the same obstacles going forward.
Ultimately, Palmer Hamilton is looking to solve a school’s problems, not create more. Schools in the market for a major cafeteria upgrade are generally looking for a solution for an objective. In many cases that’s driving up student participation or making a space more flexible, but we’ve encountered and assisted with many other goals as well. Understanding the “why” helps our designers be the best possible resource to help schools bring their vision to life.
Palmer Hamilton would not be successful today without the continued input from the schools and dealers we work with. We hope that they learn as much from us as we do from them and that they value the quality of our expertise as much as the quality of our products.
Pamela Gannon, Contracts Manager – Palmer Hamilton
Given the significant volume of projects Palmer Hamilton undertakes each year and the demanding deadlines we navigate, prioritizing operational efficiency is essential. To improve our processes and enhance the overall experience for all stakeholders, Palmer Hamilton has secured standardized contracts. These agreements streamline purchasing across sectors such as education, healthcare and commercial enterprises, resulting in notable time savings by minimizing negotiation and approval times. Additionally, they reduce overall costs for end users through consistent terms, ensure clarity to minimize confusion and promote enhanced collaboration among stakeholders, ultimately leading to more successful project outcomes.
One major advantage is the standardized negotiation process, which simplifies the creation and implementation of contracts compared to managing individual project bids.
Despite these benefits, many organizations underutilize them due to a lack of awareness regarding their advantages and applications. Palmer Hamilton provides valuable insights into available options and demonstrates how contracts can benefit all stakeholders involved.
Type of Contracts
In addition to the broad advantages of a streamlined and cost-effective purchasing process, each type of contract presents its own unique benefits. Palmer Hamilton partners with a wide range of cooperative, regional and state contracts, each designed with distinct features to meet specific opportunities.
Maximizing Value with Contracts
Our extensive experience with various contract types has highlighted several key trends that demonstrate their effectiveness. One major advantage is the standardized negotiation process, which simplifies the creation and implementation of contracts compared to managing individual project bids. This method reduces complexity and allows organizations to act quickly in meeting their needs.
Although the contracts are based on a standard framework, they can be customized to fit an organization’s specific requirements.
Although the contracts are based on a standard framework, they can be customized to fit an organization’s specific requirements. This adaptability enables tailored solutions that can respond to changing circumstances or unique project demands, ensuring that organizations remain flexible and competitive.
Furthermore, the efficiencies gained in procurement often lead to significant financial benefits. By consolidating purchases through these contracts, organizations can take advantage of bulk buying power, resulting in greater discounts for end users. As purchase volumes increase, pricing improves, leading to considerable cost savings over time. This strategic approach not only maximizes value but also strengthens relationships between organizations and their suppliers, enhancing overall business performance.
To learn more about Palmer Hamilton’s contract partners, visit www.palmerhamilton.com/purchasing-contracts/.
Non-traditional learning that emphasizes collaboration and hands-on experiences has steadily grown in popularity thanks to the many benefits it offers students and staff. Dedicated makerspaces within schools are an invaluable component of this kind of learning and offer a resource that can be shared by the entire community.
The unfamiliar design and technology in a makerspace can cause implementation to be a bit of a challenge for schools. However, by joining with a full-service space designer that focuses on making the space customizable, functional and sustainable, schools can be confident in its success.
Customizable
Building a customizable space starts with meeting schools where they are. In addition to typical considerations, such as the size of the school and age of the students, existing initiatives need to be taken into account as well. Some schools have already incorporated career and technical education (CTE) into their curriculum before they start building a designated space, and some are starting from square one. Where the school falls on that spectrum informs how robust the space’s capabilities and the team’s support need to be.
Understanding the school’s existing experiential learning offerings is also important in determining which machines to put in the makerspace. Vinyl cutters are often a good first step and a common hobby machine that educators may be familiar with. Laser cutters are similarly easy to use and efficient. Another popular and accessible choice is a 3D printer, but those can be a bit time-consuming for shorter class periods. Computer numerical control (CNC) machines are the most complex, but an entry-level version in a makerspace can help introduce students to the technology they will use in future CTE classes. Every school has a machine (or machines) that will best serve its needs and inform the design of the rest of the space.
Another customizable feature unique to makerspaces is moveable furniture. Unlike most classrooms that service a single teacher or subject area, makerspaces are traditionally used as a communal resource open to everyone. While this is a testament to the utility of makerspaces and STEM/STEAM learning in general, it also means that the space needs to be adaptable to a variety of ages, subjects and project types. Installing mobile furniture allows educators and students to quickly and easily transform the space into what they need without taking time away from learning.
Functional
Schools implementing a makerspace want to be sure they do it right. No one wants to spend the money for a 3D printer and have it sit unused in a classroom. Bringing in expert help can be the key to ensuring the investment has the support it needs for long-term success.
One area where experienced professionals can improve a school’s maker program is with ongoing staff training. For example, PHabLAB will aim to train at least a dozen school staff members from a variety of different subjects on how to use the machines in the makerspace. After the initial training, PHabLAB remains a resource for schools to use in ensuring the longevity of the maker programs. Training for teachers is always available if more staff is interested in using the space or there is significant turnover within the school. This ensures that there are no gaps between knowledgeable instructors who can take advantage of the makerspace.
Another resource PHabLAB provides to help schools build their program is a library of projects. These activities range in subjects and difficulty, and each project comes with a list of necessary materials and instructions. Teachers can incorporate these into their existing curriculum as they become comfortable with the space and its machines.
Both of these offerings combine with the years of design experience to create not only a space, but a program that schools can be proud of.
Sustainable
A makerspace is a considerable investment, and school administrations need to be confident that they will be usable for a long time. As with all Palmer Hamilton products, the furniture delivered by PHabLAB is highly durable for safe and long-lasting use.
In addition to the physical space, the value the programs themselves provide to students makes them highly sustainable as well. There is a lot of demand for skilled workers in the job market, and these makerspaces introduce students to important technology they could use to build a future career. Many schools have opted for 3D printers or CNC machines because students can become certified in their use, an excellent addition to any resume. In the short term, there are also a lot of students who do not respond well to traditional lecture-based instruction and can become disengaged from learning and their peers. Makerspaces offer another opportunity for those students to find something they can excel in at school, so they are excited to come to class every day.
Essentially, the cornerstones of a quality makerspace are the same as the projects made within them. Does it fit the needs of the application? Is it made with a solid foundation and the right materials? And, will it be around for as long as it needs to be? Answering yes to all these questions is critical to ensuring your makerspace makes the grade.
Over the past two years I have worked with Zink Foodservice as a regional account manager, advising non-commercial food service operations on front and back of house acquisitions. In that time, I have partnered with Palmer Hamilton on several accounts as a trusted vendor that my K-12 clients can rely on for elevated spaces and high-quality furniture.
Before I moved into my current position, I was a K-12 food service director for many years. This role allowed me to gain a unique understanding of the people I now call clients. I know what they value in a business partner, and I can identify and appreciate vendors like Palmer Hamilton that make the extra effort to meet these unique needs in the K-12 market:
Food Service Directors Have a Lot on Their Plate
When I worked in a school district, I had 20 buildings to manage and oversaw a total of eight remodels. The day-to-day operations of managing staff, planning menus, working out budgets and other tasks combined with these larger projects to improve my spaces was a lot to handle.
My experience is not unique, and there are countless food service directors in K-12 who are currently managing a similar workload. They don’t have much room left in their schedule for anything else. With the high demands of the role in mind, the best approach to sales in K-12 is more of a partnership than a pitch. Directors should be able to find relief in handing over part of their long list of responsibilities to a trusted advisor, knowing they will receive insightful, application-specific recommendations without any agenda outside of providing what’s best for the school.
Funding Is a Tough Nut to Crack
Another time-consuming aspect of the food service director’s job is the lengthy approval process required for any larger acquisitions. Purchases over a certain dollar amount are required by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to follow various rules and go through several steps before they can come to fruition.
Understandably, this red tape can discourage food service directors from pursuing bigger projects, even if they want to take them on. Any advisor who works with schools on these larger scale endeavors needs to know how to navigate and assist in the complexities of funding and be able to further lessen the burden on the director.
There Are Many Mouths to Feed
Food service directors are constantly working to please several different bosses. There are the district administration and regulation from the USDA, but many other parties also have a lot of influence on school nutrition.
Unlike other departments within a school, food service’s budget comes directly from its income. In other words, the more kids who are eating meals at school, the higher the budget. This makes convincing students to eat the food provided by the school critical to maintaining and growing the program. Appealing to students requires a multi-faceted approach, with many schools updating the menus to include more “build-it-yourself” options and culinary diversity, as well as working to make the physical space more modern and inviting.
Staff working under a director also have a lot of influence, especially in today’s market. Keeping cafeteria workers happy in their roles has always been a priority for food service directors. However, this has become even more important as finding and retaining cafeteria workers has been a challenge since the beginning of the pandemic.
With all these stakeholders who need to be catered to in different ways, working with a company that understands each group is critical.
The Secret Ingredient
School food service directors care a lot about their programs and their communities, and they want to work with people who feel the same way. Understanding this truth has led Zink to hire employees and choose vendors, like Palmer Hamilton, that reflect that mentality by putting the needs of the school first.
Palmer Hamilton has proven time and time again to understand the industry and regulations, lessen the burden with a full-service business model and cohesively incorporate all stakeholder opinions into each design. We are proud to work with the Palmer Hamilton team and will continue to recommend them, confident that they will help schools elevate their food service spaces and programs.
Hiring a third-party company to work with a school on a furniture installation is kind of like hiring a babysitter to watch your kids. They will do the job well enough in the short-term simple situations, but they don’t have the same knowledge and insight as the parents for more complicated decision making. Instead, Palmer Hamilton takes a hands-on strategy to “product parenting” by offering a full-service approach from the project intake through completion.
Recently, Palmer Hamilton has begun incorporating a factory-direct installation program where someone from our team goes to the school to install the products instead of an outside vendor. Bringing this part of the process back to Palmer Hamilton has already proven to be huge in increasing safety, return on investment and ease of doing business for customers.
Safety
Safety is the number one concern for every new product we develop, and we are meticulous about creating an installation process that eradicates as much risk as possible. Factory-direct installation is another step towards ensuring that the process is followed to the letter and keeping the staff and students who use our products safe.
The initial focus of this new program has largely been our more intricate products, like the wall pocket tables. These products have a lot of moving pieces and extra steps required during the installation, which present more room for error and potential injuries if not done correctly.
An outside company will have instructions on how to install the tables, but they will not have the in-depth product knowledge the manufacturers possess that allows them to understand why they need to be installed that way. Not only will a Palmer Hamilton employee have a better grasp on the initial process, but they can also offer best management practices to help the school avoid injury in the future.
Return on Investment
In addition to protecting the people, this installation method helps preserve the product. Many wall pocket tables have been in schools for decades, and while some may look their age, others are still in pristine condition. The difference is how the tables have been treated over time.
While Palmer Hamilton employees are on-site, they can share tips on how to keep the tables in top condition with the school’s unique environment in mind. This comes from the wealth of knowledge and experience built up by working with these products every day. School staff would have no way of knowing this information, and outside installers don’t know the product well enough to offer it to them. Installers from Palmer Hamilton bring in that additional resource to help increase the lifespan of these products and preserve their integrity for years to come.
Ease of Doing Business
Another element that factory-direct installation has shown to improve is the customer experience. Whether the school or Palmer Hamilton is the one hiring and coordinating with an outside installer, this increases the logistical legwork required to get anything accomplished. Two schedules are always better than three when trying to set up an appointment.
Streamlining the number of people on a job also simplifies who to contact for any needs going forward. If there is a warranty issue shortly after the installation, the customer would normally have to try and figure out who to reach out to, the manufacturer or the installer, so they can remedy the situation. With factory-direct installation, Palmer Hamilton is both, and the question of who to contact is easily answered.
We’ve already seen these benefits play out and heard about the positive impact of factory-direct installation from schools. Now, all that’s left is to grow the program to include more products and a larger geographic area to help more of our customers do even more with their space.
Michele Stamper, Manager Customer Service – Palmer Hamilton
Customer perception is everything to Palmer Hamilton’s customer service department, and we are the ones working to keep it front of mind at every step of an order. Waiting for the customer to come to us with an issue is not enough. Instead, we are pulling from our vast understanding of the customers’ needs and expectations to proactively build a customer-friendly experience that stops potential issues before they reach the end user.
We are involved in your furniture project every step of the way to advocate for you to Palmer Hamilton’s many departments. To understand how we have consistently achieved industry-leading customer service, here is a look behind the curtain at who we are, where we fit into the project and what we offer to Palmer Hamilton customers.
People
A great customer service team starts with hiring the right people. I’m very selective about the people I hire, and my criteria goes beyond what they have on their resume.
When we interview potential candidates, we focus more on personality and soft skills than anything else. I can teach the right person over the weeks they spend in training to understand the products and how the business operates, but I can’t train someone to be kind and caring while also being confident and assertive. These traits are imperative for the job, which is why, in addition to our interviews, we do personality testing to make sure that each candidate has the right disposition for both the job and the team environment.
As a result, we have fostered a cohesive and collaborative culture within the customer service department. Everyone has their territories to focus on, but people are consistently sharing ideas and asking questions to ensure their customers have the highest level of knowledge at their disposal.
Places
In addition to working well within our team, the customer service representatives need to be active observers and communicators with various departments throughout the entire process. We are the ones who receive the request for a quote or design book, and we are the only ones who will stay with each project all the way through completion and beyond.
When a request for a quote comes in, we pull from our expertise to offer transparent details about the pricing, timeline and project scope. Once the quote is approved, it becomes a project, which we send to production and continue to check on in daily meetings to ensure that the timeline is being followed. The transportation department usually attends these meetings as well, and we will communicate with them to coordinate the final delivery schedule and logistics. In addition to ensuring our dealer partners’ expectations are exceeded upon delivery, if necessary, we will monitor response times from our warranty department to ensure our high standards of excellence and transparency are carried forward throughout the entire process.
Things
In addition to our everyday work with other departments, we are also involved in broader initiatives to enhance customer perception of Palmer Hamilton’s overall operation.
A recent change we implemented in our own department is advanced shipping notices, which communicate critical delivery information to the dealer partner working with the school on the project. This comes in response to feedback asking for specific delivery details to ensure schools are ready for their new furniture. Disposing of the old table and chairs can take time, and an exact date for delivery takes the guesswork out of the removal timeline, increasing the ease of doing business with Palmer Hamilton.
Now, we’re focusing on turnaround time. When a new quote request comes in, we want to establish a consistent process that allows us to provide accurate quotes within eight hours. Our research has indicated that speed is one of the customer’s top priorities, and working to accomplish that first step faster is another way we have proactively enhanced the overall customer experience.
If you are interested in any other behind the scenes details or would like to submit any other feedback to enhance your customer experience, we are (as always) happy to help!
Working with PHDesign gives us the unique and rewarding opportunity to elevate cafeteria spaces from unremarkable “before” pictures into incredible “after” pictures that represent a school’s culture and vision. This transformation requires collaboration from multiple parties, especially in the beginning when we need input about both the functional needs and desired aesthetic. Over the years, we have been able to streamline this input process into a two-step system that captures all the information we need to do more with your space™.
Step 1: Logistics
The first set of questions we ask are all about the furniture. Those answers give us the essential details we need to create the room layout before we can move on to the decor and feel of the space.
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To start off, we need to establish the desired seating capacity. For many schools, increasing the population that a cafeteria can support to cut down on lunch periods or sustain growing student populations is the reason they were looking for an upgrade in the first place. Even if a school is trying to maintain or decrease seating capacity, designers still need to understand how many meal periods there are and how many people use the space per meal period before making any decisions on the layout.
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The size of the room plays into this as well. Fitting more tables and chairs into a smaller space may limit the available furniture selection that will fit the school’s needs, so the room’s parameters need to be measured as one of the initial steps.
After determining how big the area is and how many people need to fit into it, the next questions to ask are all about the interaction with the space. The traffic flow during a lunch period has a big effect on where furniture can be placed. Major passages need to be kept clear to avoid bottlenecking students, while areas with fewer people passing by can offer space for additional seating, condiment stations, waste receptacles and other important pieces. Cafeterias also need to be wheelchair-accessible throughout the service line and in the seating area. To be ADA-compliant, 5 percent of the tables or seating areas need to be accessible, but schools with a higher demographic of students in wheelchairs should incorporate more.
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Interaction with the space outside of the lunch hour can be important as well. Often, cafeterias serve multiple purposes in addition to food service, including common areas, community rooms, auditoriums and gyms, and the furniture in these situations should be mobile and easily stored for quick cleaning and rearranging to fit those needs.
Step 2: Looks
Unlike the logistics input, which tends to follow roughly the same set of questions for every cafeteria, the looks phase of our initial intake has a bit more variety. Some schools come in with a clear idea of exactly what they want in the space, either from seeing another Palmer Hamilton cafeteria or ideas they came up with before bringing us in. In these cases, we will have a discussion to get on the same page, confirm what they want by showing some examples, then get to work on the design book.
Other schools may not have as clear of an idea about what they want the space to look like, and we are always prepared and happy to help. We’ll start by giving the key decision makers a book full of previous examples that they can flip through to identify elements they like. This also allows them to indicate which elements they don’t like, which is equally useful for our design input.
In addition to whether a school comes in with a design direction in mind or not, the age group of the students can also have an impact on the questions we ask during this part of the process. Generally speaking, the biggest choice for an elementary school cafeteria aesthetic is whether to make it more playful or sophisticated, while a middle or high school is usually more concerned with how much emphasis is put on school colors and the mascot in the design elements. We will use a combination of our own samples and well-known establishments (e.g. “Do you want to be more like Panera Bread or Chuck E. Cheese?”) to determine where a school is on these spectrums and truly understand the targeted aesthetic.
For years, this process has allowed us to understand our directives more efficiently, seamlessly incorporate input from multiple stakeholders and ultimately deliver cafeterias that school communities are excited to use. Contact us today to put our award-winning design and turn-key solutions to work for you.
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Safety
The first and most uncompromisable priority in a Palmer Hamilton table design is safety. Designing safe products for K-12 comes with some unique challenges, as the tables are often moved and treated rougher than other environments while their primary users, children, are more accident-prone than adults and therefore more susceptible to injury.
In response to these risk factors, all Palmer Hamilton tables come with several safety features to protect both the products and the people who use them. Palmer Hamilton tables aren’t just nice to look at; they’re built to last. We offer industry-leading durability with a 15-year warranty to give schools confidence in their investments’ longevity.
To protect the students and staff who interact with our products, we follow table construction guidelines and certain safety tests that have been cemented as industry standards. However, we also incorporate our own experience in K-12 to identify potential risks and add additional safety features. This includes locking mechanisms to ensure tables are stabilized during use and storage, outriggers to allow them to be moved and stored safely and inherent features to prevent pinch points.
Functionality
Defining the function(s) is the first step we take when coming up with a new product. Developing a novel table model is always exciting, but doing so without first identifying a corresponding need is essentially a waste of time.
In addition to understanding the market to find that need, companies have
to understand themselves and their offerings. There may be a new, in-demand function that can be fulfilled with a few small tweaks to an existing model. Self-awareness in this kind of situation allows companies to streamline the engineering process to expand their capabilities efficiently.
After identifying what the function is for a new table, designers need to anticipate how it will be used. People are increasingly placing value in ease of use for most products, and that rings true for K-12 furniture. Any necessary setup, takedown or movement to achieve the desired function should be easily done without complicated instructions.
Efficiency
The final critical priority in developing a new table is efficiency. Adding a new product means more work to the production line, which makes simple assembly processes critical to the operation’s sustainability. Efficiency on the floor can also be achieved by consolidating existing products. In 2023, the
Palmer Hamilton team reviewed our line of mobile cafeteria tables with an assessment of how the offerings fulfilled different functions. We found that the number of complex assemblies could be reduced by 50 percent while still covering all the needs schools may have. This reduction eliminated redundancies in the catalog and streamlined the production process to be more economical.
As Palmer Hamilton continues to grow, we anticipate continued challenges in maintaining efficiency and new opportunities to find innovative solutions. For now, our priority is investing in our people, as they are the foundation of our current and future success. We are also exploring new technologies and automation that can elevate our operation even further. The future looks bright, and we are excited to continue developing tables that help schools do more with their space.
July 12 – 14 • Charlotte, NC
Known as the School Nutrition Event of the Year, the School Nutrition Association’s Annual National Conference (ANC) unites thousands of school nutrition program operators, industry partners, and allied organizations for an unparalleled educational and networking experience every July.
As 2023 draws to a close, Palmer Hamilton extends heartfelt gratitude for an outstanding year. Our dedicated team played a pivotal role in making this year the most successful to date, contributing to various noteworthy accomplishments:
Above all, we cherish both the work we engage in and the individuals we serve. Looking forward, Palmer Hamilton anticipates a bright future, marked by ongoing investments in operational efficiency and ease of business, coupled with the continued expansion of our product lines in 2024. We wish you a joyous holiday season, and stay tuned for what promises to be another exciting year!
Furniture Solutions Provider Palmer Hamilton Earns Top Five Ranking as Part of Future 50 Recognition
K-12 solutions manufacturer lauded as one of the fastest growing companies in the Milwaukee area
Palmer Hamilton, a full-service provider of turnkey furniture solutions for cafeterias and maker spaces, has been recognized by a leading business publication as one of the “Fastest Five” growing companies in southeastern Wisconsin.
Palmer Hamilton’s business model helps schools “do more with their space” by elevating cafeterias and other common areas to reflect the character of the community. Every Palmer Hamilton project is unique and designed with input from key stakeholders, including students, staff and faculty. Much of the growth Palmer Hamilton has seen recently can be attributed to investments made to improve the customer experience. This includes upgrading customer and resource planning software systems, adding interactive tools for easier design input and increasing manufacturing capabilities.
This recognition comes through the Future 50 awards program, established in 1988 by BizTimes Media, a Milwaukee-based business media company. The goal of Future 50 is to recognize and celebrate local companies that have objectively grown the most throughout the previous year. To qualify, companies must be privately owned and in business for at least three years, demonstrating significant growth in both revenue and employment. The five companies exhibiting the most growth receive a special distinction as one of the “Fastest Five.”
A celebration for the success of all 50 companies was held Thursday, Sept. 22. Representatives from the Fastest Five companies, including Palmer Hamilton CEO and President John Gardner, spoke in a panel discussion focused on the keys to achieving growth, biggest challenges to overcome and why the company benefits from working out of Wisconsin.
This year’s class of Future 50 winners have added almost 2,000 jobs to the Milwaukee area over the past three years and grown the economy with $1.7 billion in annual revenue.
“We are honored to be among such good company as a Future 50 and Fastest Five recipient,” says Gardner. “Our commitment to our community is one of the foundations of Palmer Hamilton, and we look forward to bringing in more jobs and revenue to the Milwaukee area for years to come.”
The BizTimes article about the Fastest Five panel at the event can be found here: www.biztimes.com/these-are-the-5-fastest-growing-privately-held-companies-in-southeastern-wisconsin/.
After so much time working in K-12 schools, we have learned a great deal more than English, math and science. Doing business with a school district is unique from most other partnerships, and being able to navigate that successfully requires in-depth knowledge and a well-rounded approach focused on school-specific ease of business.
A Basic Education on Education
Timing is important in any project, regardless of the industry. However, the window for completing a project within a school makes timing even more critical. The budget year in education typically begins on July 1, which tends to be 6-8 weeks before the start of classes. This usually results in planning done throughout the school year for any larger projects to be completed in the following summer before the next fiscal year. With such little time available, businesses working with schools need to be efficient with responsive quotes, easy-to-place orders and a full understanding of the timing required for development and installation to not interfere with school operations.
Each cafeteria project Palmer Hamilton has worked on over the years is unique, but we’ve been able to separate most of them into three major categories to help us budget our time properly.
Making the Grade
To ensure the best flow of business for these and any other styles of project, Palmer Hamilton has invested significantly into business process improvements across our operation.
A major enhancement comes from reinvesting over $5 million into our manufacturing capabilities. We were able to add high-tech equipment that allows us to insource much of what we were previously outsourcing, simplifying the process and reducing lead times.
In addition, we integrated our enterprise resource planning (ERP) system with our customer relations management (CRM) system. Not only does this make digital project components less complicated, it also allows for full transparency with customers who can track their order and easily communicate with us about its status. The CRM system has also been upgraded to include case management for any issues or questions customers may have during the project or after it’s installed. As a result of this new software, the number of cases that are open and the average time it takes to close them has decreased by 50% in only eight months.
Customer interactions have also been made easier with our new Quick Pick form. This tool gives schools access to a selection of our most popular products and colors to build an initial design concept. Our team can then take that concept as a jumping off point, streamlining the process of obtaining customer input for designs and quotes. The next evolution for this resource is to enable images to be moved or rotated and add more color options and interactive features for our customers.
These changes have had a major impact on the ease of doing business with Palmer Hamilton, and we’re just getting started. We refuse to rest on our laurels and remain committed to delivering industry-leading products with industry-leading customer service.
School decision makers do not often find themselves in a position with a budget surplus, but this is the current situation for many schools thanks to pandemic relief funding.
With the upcoming deadlines to spend this money, many schools are looking for meaningful ways to invest in the education experience for students, faculty and staff. There are several valuable ways that funding can be used to achieve this, and schools across the country have found one of them to be upgrading their cafeterias.
Student Experience
Enhancing your cafeteria does more than just bring in new furniture and decorations, it allows you to create a space that encourages student participation and engagement. Though traditional cafeterias are highly functional, we have found that offering students different seating styles and creating more of a restaurant feel with the design achieves that same usability and elevates the experience within the space.
A student from a high school that used its relief funding to redo the cafeteria commented on how the project impacted them, saying, “I love this cafeteria. It’s so different than what it used to be, and it makes me want to eat breakfast and lunch here more often.”
Much of this excitement comes from input given by the students themselves. Palmer Hamilton encourages schools to involve student representatives in focus groups during the design process, giving them a voice in how their community and their peers are represented. This can include activities, slogans, design motifs, table layouts and other aspects of the final elevated space.
Return on Investment
Because food service is generally one of the only options schools have to generate income, school districts that renovate cafeterias are investing in a source of revenue.
After working with Palmer Hamilton, a high school in Georgia saw participation increase by 12% every month compared to the previous year, and a school in Florida achieved a full return on its investment into a full cafeteria redo within just 75 days from increased participation. These schools and others like them continue to see more returns from higher student participation during meals, giving them the resources for more projects to continue enhancing a student’s experience in nutrition and beyond.
Future Impact
Without the consistent room in the budget to update the look of your cafeteria, getting it right the first time is important. Palmer Hamilton prides itself on durability with both the design and craftsmanship of its products.
Palmer Hamilton designers are intentional with how they choose design motifs. While each project should have a modern look, the designers try to avoid imagery and themes that are overly trendy. Sticking with a more timeless look allows schools to continue enjoying the space for years to come without it falling out of style.
Investing in higher quality furniture also diminishes or even eliminates the frequency of costly and inconvenient replacements. Palmer Hamilton projects from years ago still look brand new thanks to the workmanship on the products themselves. This level of quality can also be applied to mobile or flexible furniture solutions, allowing schools to reposition, reconfigure or even remove furniture for safe, efficient traffic flow and multiple layouts within a single space.
There may not be many opportunities for schools to invest in themselves like this, so talk to a Palmer Hamilton representative today to take advantage of extra funding and do more with your space™.
Ty Maras
CRO – Palmer Hamilton LLC
tmaras@palmerhamilton.com
1.800.788.1028 ex. 903
Or see Teri Wilson-Ruggles
Teri Wilson-Ruggles
Director of PHDesign
truggles@palmerhamilton.com
1.920.517.7809
Or see Ty Maras
Aimee Duchemin
aduchemin@palmerhamilton.com
1.262.274.4916
