Cafeteria meals go paperless
By PAT FRIDGEN Echo Pilot

Cashier Gwenda Ingream processes two lines of students in the lunch line at the elementary school. Each student enters a PIN into a keypad. Ingream verifies the name on the screen and the price of the meal is deducted from the child's prepaid account. Parents are notified when the fund balance is low.

So much for lost lunch tickets or coins jingling in pockets. They are going the way of the dinosaur for students in the Greencastle-Antrim School District.

The youngest students were the first to be introduced to the new Point of Sale system for meals. Children in the Primary School have been ticketless and cashless since September. The youngsters caught on quickly, said Food Service Director Carol Bricker.

In the computerized system, students enter their school PIN into a keypad. Their names, and eventually their photos, pop up on the touch screen. A cashier verifies the identity of each student, and with a simple press of the finger, the sale of the meal is recorded against the student's account.

Parents prepay as much as they desire, often for a month at a time. They specify if their child may purchase only the regular school lunch, or also ala carte items, extra milk and ice cream.

The Elementary School went online in October and the Middle School in January. The High School system is slated to be running in March.

Bricker pushed for Point of Sale for years. She visited other school districts to compare the various systems available. She saw three particular benefits to adopting the new way to purchase meals.

"We had a lot of problems with lost tickets. The fact that we don't deal with lost tickets anymore is awesome," she said.

The line also moves more quickly and participation in the free and reduced lunch program has increased. In the past it was obvious which children were eligible for the program because of their special tickets. In some cases they chose not to eat rather than be identified as a recipient. Now they blend in with everyone else, she said.

Bricker and her assistant Tina Mowen have seen a reduction in paperwork and time working on lunch issues. Using a back office system, they are able to correct any mistakes in charges or deposits. Glitches have been minor and parents have been pleased with the system, they said.

The cashiers at each building have adapted to the new method as well. Lisa Kline at the primary, Gwenda Ingream in the elementary, and Barb Miller and Betty Dietrick in the middle school keep pace with the swift moving lines of hungry students.

Bricker said parents will soon be able to access their child's account online to keep track of the balance, and even review what has been purchased. Whether the child actually ate his peas is another matter.