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Our clients speak volumes
"Biometric technology has brought much needed anonymity to our food
service program. Not even the cashiers know which students are "free" or "reduced"
and the students and parents have responded well. For the 10 years prior to the
high tech system, the high school averaged 28.6% low income. Now in the fourth year
of technology, the high school percentage of low income is at 42.7% and the 4-years
average 39.1%. High school is only 2 percentage points below the elementary low
income for 2004-2005. The additional reimbursement enables us to provide higher
quality meals and more generous servings.
" Dr. Russell Strange, Superintendent Penn Cambria School District 12/21/2004
Thank you to you and your staff for working hard to correct our scale issues. My
cashier ran this station today, and I am pleased to report that we were error free.
I really appreciate how quickly you respond to our technical needs, and it is great
that you have a programming team to trouble shoot problems directly. Diane stated,
" You made my life so much easier today, thank you-thank you-thank you!" The students
and staff are really using the salad station in our food court and the convenience
to having an integrated scale system with our point of sale is genius - keep up
the good work!
Maureen Faron,
RD,LD Food Service Director
Chagrin Falls Exempted
Village School District
400 East Washington Street
Chagrin Falls, Ohio 44022
(440) 247-2453
Everybody's more relaxed. Young lunch packers would often fret about losing lunch
money on the way to the cafeteria. Now they just swipe their finger and charge their
account. A substitute teacher would throw the old laborious system into chaos. Now
I spend more time teaching."
Jackie Meyers, Kindergarten Teacher
"Both students and teachers no longer have to worry about the lunch process or managing
money. The ones who forgot their lunchbox on the bus just get in line and debit
another lunch. Those low income kids who used to plop down only 40 cents in front
of peers with $1.25 aren't singled out. And the fickle eaters who order a PB&J in
the morning, only to realize at noon that ravioli was the way to go, aren't bound
by the decision. The new scanning system allows the student to decide what they'll
eat as they enter the line."
USATODAY.COM, February 2, 2001
"Since we put the 'solution' in 3 years ago here at Penn Cambria our participation
has increased by 12%, our revenue is up $94.00 per student annually, our breakfast
program doubled and we increased our Free and Reduced percentage by 3.5%.
We aren't piled up in paper and spend less than an hour a day on reporting for both
the business office and state/federal requirements. We have time to plan and poll
the students three times a year to make sure we are serving what they want. Our
cooks get together to plan new menus and refine the existing one. The 6 site managers
now work as a team. It's been a nice transition to watch.
They standardized every recipe. Both the kids and staff say the quality and the
choices have never been better. That's part of the reason for the revenue increases.
The other is giving the kids a debit account.
As the parents now send us checks for a week, month or whatever they choose, we
don't have to deal with lost or stolen lunch money and the parent knows that the
money he gives his children really does get used for lunch. There is even an educational
aspect of the program.
Since the student can charge both meals and al a carte, (with parental permission),
they learn how to manage a bank account. Sure a parent has a conniption when Josh
goes a little overboard the first month, but I print them a detailed statement of
every day, every item. After that, Josh has to work it out with mom and dad with
regards to what he is eating and how much he is allowed to spend each day.
If it persists to be a problem we just turn his al a carte account off. As for meals,
I never turn a kid down for a meal. We'll get the money somehow. My bad debt last
year was less than $400 for 2000 students.
There's no lost lunch money, the teachers have no responsibility for any cafeteria
function, (they absolutely love it), and the administration is ecstatic with the
results.
What Food Service Solutions has is a whole lot more than point of sale or software.
They have a 'solution' or find one for almost any need I have when it comes
to processing or interpreting information.
The state auditor showed up in August for our new summer feeding program. He planned
the afternoon and was done in less than a half hour. Said he didn't know how I pulled
all the information together but that every school ought to have this type of reporting
capability.
We are the first school district in the country to implement the biometric fingerscan
for school lunch and after working out all the kinks it is quick, reliable and
well accepted by everyone in the district. The elementary kids love
it and the bigger kids know they can't beat it. They can't put in someone else's
PIN number, swap or give their card to someone else.....best of all they can't forget
or lose them.
We get eight to ten kids through the line a minute with no cash
and six to eight when the student is fumbling around looking for his money. We discourage
cash in the line, but just like the fingerscan, it isn't mandated".
Milton Miller, Food Service Director
"The system is so simple, it's almost child's play. The elimination of lunch tickets
helps protect the privacy of students participating in Free and Reduced lunch programs."
FOX News
"I know for a fact that when I send in my check the money is being used for school
lunch. It sure beats trying to find $1.60 every day for each of my three children".
Parent
"Easy as pie. I wait until all other kids are done. I put my finger down on it--use
the pointy finger--and in just a little while, the red light shut off. My money
comes from my bank account." Austin"Zeke" Adams, Student age 7
The fingerscan follows the national privacy acts. Unless the finger is there, it
can't tell you who it is. Once the students realized that the police can't come
in and say 'Hey, I found this fingerprint on the Burger King robbery, can I match
it in your database?' the students were OK with it".
Bob Engen, President
Education Biometrics Technology
Caledonia, MN
"It's certainly a lot faster and the most of the kids keep accounts so they can
eat what they want when they want. Only a few of the 700 students have opted to
use a PIN number instead of the fingerscan".
Linda Kelly, Cafeteria Manager
Welsh Valley School, Philadelphia, PA
"As a teacher I love the new cafeteria solution. We used to spend 20-30 minutes
collecting lunch money, handling the cash and giving change.. That amounts to an
extra 60 hours of learning time for the kids annually." Sue Creighan, First
Grade Teacher
"You don't have to bring lunch money. So, somebody can't take it" Student-age
13, Welsh Valley Middle School, Philadelphia, PA
"I like the fact that when I have a question, problem or concern that Food Service
Solutions has real people answering the phone-no voice mail-and they really do understand
that getting an answer to the issue at hand is a priority. A-plus for service."
FSS Customer
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