It’s an unfortunate reality that for many students, the lunch they get at school may be the only nutritionally-complete meal they have that day. School lunches serve a critical role, providing students with the nutrition they require to fuel their growing bodies and developing brains, and give them the energy they need to learn.
However, school lunches are run on a tight schedule, and cafeterias are tasked with providing balanced meals to every student, with speed and efficiency. If this isn’t achieved, it could mean that not every student that needs a lunch has time to finish theirs before the bell rings. That is why it’s so critical to have a school lunch POS built with the needs of students and cafeterias in mind.
Here’s how they help:
Online Payments
Ever have your lunch money stolen from schoolyard bullies? Ever lose your lunch money and have to face a tongue-lashing from your parent or guardian? If you grew up before the rise of advanced school lunch POS, you probably have run into this unfortunate scenario. Luckily, technology can step in and save the day.
Online payments allow parents and guardians to place money in student accounts. This not only keeps children from having their lunch money lost or stolen, it allows cafeterias to speed up transactions and accept a wide array of payment types, such as:
- Credit and debit
- NFC and mobile payments
- Cash bank account information
- Automated clearing house (ACH) transactions
Download our free eBook: 5 Must-Have Features to Look for in School Cafeteria POS
Online Portal
In addition to placing money in a student account, parents and guardians need the ability to monitor and manage these accounts through online portals. The latest school lunch POS systems provide online portals with individual logins that allow parents to view account balances, transactions, and recent purchases.
With these, they can set spending limits, restrict food items due to dietary or cultural restrictions, and make sure lunch money is being used for its intended purpose, rather than snacks from vending machines or other purchases.
Free or Reduced Meal Management
School can be tough, and it gets worse when harsh stigmas make students feel insecure about participating in free or reduced meal programs. School lunch POS helps reduce this stigma by processing free or reduced lunches the same way full-priced lunches are processed. This discreet functionality provides student confidentiality while accurately accounting for all eligible students and their participation in these programs to maximize reimbursements. Should a student’s status change, you can easily update this information so the correct balances are always communicated to cashiers.
Rugged Hardware
School cafeterias are by no means delicate environments. Cram that many children into a single room, load them up with messy food, and give them 30 minutes of free time, and you have a recipe for chaos.
Most technology doesn’t hold up very well to such chaos, but school lunch POS hardware, like the durable products at Touch Dynamic, is designed specifically for tough cafeteria environments will. These are resistant to spills and splatters, and can withstand the daily heavy traffic that goes hand-in-hand with school cafeterias. For more information on Touch Dynamic’s range of industry-leading hardware, contact our experts today!
