What a Central Kitchen Is
A Central Kitchen (CK) is a site in Gaia that serves two roles at once. It produces food in bulk for multiple schools, and it acts as an internal vendor that other sites in the district can order from. Schools order from the CK the same way they would order from any external vendor, and the CK then receives those orders, produces the food, and distributes it to each school.
What a Central Warehouse Is
A Central Warehouse works like a Central Kitchen but with production records turned off. It stores inventory and distributes it to schools as an internal vendor, without generating production records on the warehouse side. Schools order from the warehouse, the warehouse fulfills from on-hand stock, and inventory transfers to the receiving school on receipt.
How a Central Kitchen Works End-to-End
Schools order from the CK. School managers use the regular ordering flow. The CK appears as an internal vendor on the order guides assigned to the schools that order from it.
The CK production records are auto-generated. Gaia builds the CK's daily production records from the sum of incoming school orders, then keeps them in sync as orders are edited, placed, or received. CK staff do not enter forecasts; the forecast is driven by what the schools ordered.
CK staff produce against the daily PR. The daily production view is editable so CK staff can record actuals. Submitting a production record creates inventory for the foods produced.
The CK distributes to schools. When schools mark the CK order as received, inventory transfers from the CK's on-hand to the receiving school's on-hand in a single linked transaction.
Manufactured Items: The Bridge Between CK Production and School Orders
Most things produced at the CK and sold to schools should be set up as Manufactured Items. A manufactured item is a recipe that has been toggled to also exist as an item: it gets its own packaging sizes, conversion units, vendor product, and order guide entry. From the school's perspective, the manufactured item looks like any other packaged product. From the CK's perspective, it is still a recipe with full ingredients, instructions, and a production record.
Typical flow:
The CK builds the recipe normally (ingredients, instructions, yield, serving sizes).
The CK enables the Manufactured Item toggle on the recipe, then configures packaging (for example, "Case of 30 trays") and conversion units.
The manufactured item is added to the CK's order guide, with toggles to control which schools can order it.
Schools with the toggle ON see the manufactured item as a packaged product and order it through their regular ordering flow.
The CK's daily production record reflects the total servings needed across all school orders.
The CK produces and distributes; inventory transfers from CK to school on receipt.
See Manufactured Items vs. Sub-Recipes for when to use a manufactured item vs. a sub-recipe, and Create a Manufactured Item for the toggle steps. For the CK-specific lifecycle of a manufactured item, see Manufactured Items in the Central Kitchen Workflow.
How a Central Kitchen Is Different from a Site Kitchen
Acts as a vendor: other schools can place orders with the CK. A site kitchen only serves its own students.
Production driven by orders: CK production records are auto-generated from school orders rather than from a forecast entered at the CK.
By-school breakdown: CK staff can hover over an offering on the daily production card to see how much of that offering each school ordered, and print the breakdown for packing.
Inventory flow: when schools receive a CK order, inventory transfers from the CK to the receiving school.
How a Central Warehouse Is Different from a Central Kitchen
A warehouse is configured as a CK with production records disabled. Schools still order from the warehouse and receive deliveries from it, and inventory still transfers from the warehouse to the receiving school. The warehouse does not have its own production records to manage.
CKs and warehouses have a per-site setting that controls what happens when on-hand stock is less than the amount a school requested. When this setting is on, transfers send the full requested amount to the receiving school regardless of the CK's on-hand availability. This can be use for phase implementations.
Setting Up a Central Kitchen or Warehouse
Contact Gaia support to enable CK or warehouse behavior for a site, assign the schools it serves, and configure the inventory transfer setting described above.
Related Articles
Edit a Central Kitchen Order
Receive Central Kitchen and Warehouse Orders
Manage Central Kitchen Production
Manufactured Items in the Central Kitchen Workflow