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The Schalmont Food Services
Department is in the process of switching to a NUTRIKIDS Point
of Sale (POS) Computer System to improve the speed, accuracy and
privacy of cafeteria purchases.
The system was piloted at Jefferson Elementary
School beginning in June 2009. It will be rolled out to all five
Schalmont schools beginning in the third week of September 2009.
"Until recently, we were one of the few
districts in the Capital District still using a paper system of
recording meals. We made this switch so our cafeterias would run
more efficiently and be more accurate in reporting to the state
Education Department," said Marcy von Maucher, director of Food
Services.
Under the POS system, all students will be
issued a four digit pin number to use for all meal plan-based
cafeteria purchases, both breakfast and lunch.
"For students, the benefit is not having to
remember to get lunch money from mom or dad every day. Also,
when you purchase a 20-meal plan, you get a bonus meal," said
von Maucher.
A student who does not have a meal plan will
still have a four digit pin number, but he/she may choose not to
use it and instead pay by cash.
Pin numbers will be issued for all students and
sent to their homes with class schedules/back-to-school packets
in August 2009 unless they were a part of the pilot program at
Jefferson Elementary School. Each student’s pin number will
remain the same throughout his/her K-12 education.
Purchasing a Meal
Under this new system, the process for
purchasing a cafeteria item at the MS or HS will be as follows:
A student selects food/beverage items in the
cafeteria.
A student enters a pin number on a key pad
by the cashier.
If a student has forgotten his/her pin
number, the cashier finds it and the student’s account by
searching an alphabetical listing of student names.
Once a pin number is entered, a student’s
name, photograph and any food allergies will appear on the
cashier’s POS computer screen. The screen will not display a
student’s free or reduced lunch status.
The cashier will then scan the student’s
selected items.
At the elementary schools, students will not
have to memorize a pin number because the cashier will access a
class roster on the computer system and select students by name.
"After the initial transition period, we will be
able to serve more students faster," said von Maucher.
Parent Perks
For the immediate future, parents will continue
to use the current system of adding money to students’ meal plan
accounts, which involves sending in a check or cash to the
cafeteria.
Approximately two to three months after the
complete rollout of the POS system this fall, parents will be
able to go online to add money – via credit card – to their
students’ meal plan accounts. They will also be able to review
their children’s purchases by accessing an online database of
information linked to their children’s individual pin numbers.
"NUTRIKIDS offers our families a lot of
benefits," said von Maucher.
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