What’s for

lunchVolume #06March 2013

Inside this Issue:

The Need For A Good Charge Policy. pg 1-2

The Six cents: The New Snack Sheriff Has Come to Town! pg 2-3

Part 3 of 3: Revitalizing the School Lunch Line through Fingerprint Identification. pg 3-4

Hands-Free School Fundraising Through MySchoolAccount pg 5

In today’s school food service arena, computerized tracking of food sales are tied to each student’s account. This has become normal, unfortunately so has the accumulation of bad debt from to the lack of an enforceable charge policy. The meaning of “Enforceable Charge Policy” is one that embraces the pre Point-of-Sale era’s “Three Strikes and You’re Out” policy, outlined by the National School Lunch Program. Basically this policy states that a student may charge up to three meals and after the third meal he/she is placed on “Cash Only” status. Cash only means that a student may not receive a school lunch without first paying the full price for that lunch at the time of service. In grades K-3, a school lunch will be provided for the child that is a standard reimbursable lunch picked by the cafeteria to be served to students that have exceeded the three charges. Grades 4-12 do not have to receive a school lunch unless the Board Policy for charging meals allows and then it should be the standard meal provided to grades K-3.

While the above policy may appear cruel and heartless, let’s look at how we got to this point to begin with. Before the switch over from lunch tickets to computerized lunch tracking, students received their tickets before going to breakfast or lunch using a roster system. Using this system, “free” students are given a ticket, “reduced” students paid $0.40 for their ticket and both are checked off on a roster by the lunch lady. Students who are “paid” remit the full price of the lunch and were given a ticket and checked off on the appropriate roster as well. This system, while cumbersome, served a purpose and showed little if any debt as papers recording lunch loans were lost or thrown away at the end of the year giving a false sense of security when tracking bad debt. Along comes the computerized POS system giving better accountability and eliminating all chances of overtly identifying low income students. This system got students through the lines quicker and enabled a true cashless lunch program with complete financial tracking ability of transactions. Having always fed students without the worry of bad debt, many School Food Administrators (SFAs) set charge parameters too high and allowed for the charging of “a la carte” items. Many districts did not consider a cash policy or the impact of a cashless system because they had nothing to base it on, hence the arrival of bad debt.

The information provided by the new POS system was shocking to an SFA who had never experienced this type of situation before. Leaving unchecked parameters that were set too high or not given enough consideration can put up some large negative numbers that may never be collected. Going through a District Magistrate or collection agency can create bad publicity for an SFA, as the public does not look at a school cafeteria as a self sustaining entity. School cafeterias after all are to provide meals to students without worrying about the money, that’s why people pay taxes! This is the sentiment and belief of the general public. A well thought out and thoroughly communicated “Charge Policy” can eliminate this thinking and work towards cutting into this bad debt situation.

Let’s look at the information provided by most computerized POS systems and consider how negative balances can be controlled from the start and allow SFAs to regain control of the situation, while also providing better service to their student customers and their parents. Today’s POS systems provide the SFA with the ability to set charge parameters that will control student spending before it gets out of hand. As outlined in the NSLP charge guidelines, an SFA needs only to allow the charging of no more than three meals. In most cases this keeps the bleeding to less than ten dollars. POS systems also show the students account balance at the time of each transaction allowing the cashier to remind the student that they are in danger of being placed on “Cash Only” and will no longer be permitted to receive a lunch without first paying the cash price for that meal. POS systems allow SFAs to review low balance reports on a daily basis and send letters to parents alerting them that their student could be listed as “Cash Only” if their account

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The Need For A Good ChArGe PoliCy

written by Milt Miller, President at Milton Miller Consulting

is not paid. This also allows the SFA to send a Free and Reduced Lunch Application home with a letter reminding parents that if they are eligible for this program they need to apply before their student loses his/her ability to charge meals. It also aids the SFA in controlling bad debt that may not be recovered after a student is found to be eligible for a free lunch. In most districts I have observed when a large invoice for a lunch account is received, Free and Reduced paperwork is sent in the debt incurred is never collected. Better to stop this charging before it gets into triple digits as well as get Free and Reduced Applications in earlier.

Limiting student meal choices also puts pressure on parents to settle accounts as students do not like having their choices limited. A healthy lunch made up of all USDA Commodities and white fat free milk, tends to get their attention. The rule is you must feed your students but you may choose what components make up the meal. In most cases once their choices are restricted the money seems to come in. In other cases where parents are still not bringing their accounts up to date or not applying

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for free or reduced meals, outside agencies can be alerted and pressure applied in those areas.

Before starting to enforce these measures, a Board approved Charge Policy must be adopted and publicized throughout the district which will inform all students and parents of the districts intent to limit the charging of lunches. It’s a good rule of thumb to get the approval of the state educational authority as to the compliance of this policy with the NSLP guidelines on the charging of school meals. While this type of action may not bring current bad debt to an end it will provide control moving forward and will relieve a portion of the existing debt.

The author of this article is a strong believer in providing all of our school students with a well balanced and nutritious breakfast or lunch, however he is also a former school food service administrator who has seen this situation first hand and has seen how detrimental bad debt can be to the sustainability of a program.

Information adapted from ”All Foods Sold in Schools, USDA’s “Smart Snacks in Schools” Proposal presentation, School Nutrition Foundation, February 20th, 2013. Website archive at www.schoolnutrition.org/webinars.

Now that we are settling into the new Healthy Hunger Kids Act as it re-lates to how our menus for meals have changed, get ready... HERE COME CHANGES FOR YOUR SNACKS TOO!

The USDA has new authority to establish nutrition standards for all foods and beverages sold outside of the Federal child nutrition programs in schools. The provisions specify that the nutrition standards shall apply to all foods sold: outside the school meal programs; on the school campus; and at any time during the school day. These new regulations are being required to be consistent with most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Who came up with this idea? The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 Section 208 directs the Secretary to consider: authoritative scientific rec-ommendations, existing school nutrition standards, current State and local standards, practical application of standards and exemptions for school-sponsored fundraisers. The proposed changes are intended to improve the health of the Nation’s children, increase consumption of healthful foods during the school day and create an environment that reinforces the devel-opment of healthy eating habits. The USDA sites resources to determine the goals of this proposed law from the following: Recommendations of the 2007 Institute of Medicine (IOM) Report; USDA’s HUSSC standards; Existing State and local standards; Existing voluntary standards and recom-mendations; and Input from nutrition program stakeholders.

What does this mean for K-12 operators? First, we all need to under-stand the true definition of the law. The following are a list of definitions to help you navigate the “legal jargon”:

THESixCEnTSWritten by: Maureen Pisanick, RD, LD President, Chief Nutrition Officer at Pisanick Partners, LLC

Competitive food - All food and beverages sold to students on the School campus during the School day, other than those meals reimbursable under programs authorized by the NSLA and the CNA.

School campus - All areas of the property under the jurisdiction of the school that is accessible to students during the school day.

School day - The period from the midnight before, to 30 minutes after the end of the official school day.

The proposed standards apply to all foods and beverages sold on campus during the school day including a la carte, in school stores, snack bars, and vending machines.

General Standard for Food: To be allowable, a competitive food item MUST meet all of the proposed competitive food nutrient standards and General Standard to Include one of the following: Be either a fruit, a veg-etable, a dairy product, a protein food or a whole-grain rich product or con-tain 10% of the Daily Value of a naturally occurring nutrient of public health concern (i.e., calcium, potassium, vitamin D or dietary fiber) or be a combi-nation food that contains ¼ cup of fruit or vegetable.

Grain Product requirement: All grains must include 50% or more whole grains by weight or have whole grains as the first ingredient which makes them consistent with NSLP meal pattern standards and the HUSSC whole grain requirement.

Nutrients of concern: Calories need to be ≤200 calories per portion as sold (including any added accompaniments such as butter, cream cheese, salad dressing etc) or entrée items sold a la carte ≤350 calories for non NSLP/SBP entrée items. Sodium portion as packaged need to be snack

The New Snack Sheriff has Come to Town!

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and side items ≤200 mg, ala carte Entrée items: ≤480 mg. Total Fat ≤35% of total calories from fat per portion as packaged (with some exemptions to include reduced fat cheese; nuts and seeds and nut/seed butters; dried fruit with nuts and/or seeds with no added nutritive sweeteners or fat; seafood with no added fat. Saturated fat needs to be limited to <10% of total calories per portion as packaged and with zero grams of trans fat per portion as packaged. Total sugars need to meet the following: <35% of calories from total sugars in foods or ≤ 35% of weight from total sugars in foods. Caffeine for elementary and middle school age students in foods and beverages must be caffeine-free, with the exception of trace amounts of naturally oc-curring caffeine substances. For high school students there are no caffeine restrictions.

What about the drinks? We all have to have potable water available for students at no charge (for a refresher refer to Section 203 of the HHFKA).

Here is a quick reference:

Beverages: elementary School• Plain water (no size limit);• Low fat milk, plain (≤8 oz);• Non fat milk, plain or flavored (≤8 oz), including nutritionally equivalent

milk alternatives; and• 100% fruit/vegetable juice (≤8 oz).

Beverages: Middle School• Plain water (no size limit);• Low fat milk, plain (≤ 12 oz);• Non fat milk, plain or flavored (≤ 12 oz) including nutritionally equivalent

milk alternatives; and• 100 % fruit/vegetable juice (≤ 12 oz).

Beverages: high SchoolAllowed Any Time:• Plain water (no size limit);• Low fat milk, plain (≤ 12 oz.);• Non fat milk, plain or flavored (≤12 oz.), including nutritionally equivalent

milk alternative; and• 100% fruit/vegetable juice (≤12 oz.).

Allowed but not during meal service:• Calorie-free, flavored and/or unflavored, caffeinated or noncaffeinated car-

bonated water (≤20 oz);• Other calorie free caffeinated or non-caffeinated beverages that comply

with the FDA standard of less than 5 calories/serving. (≤20 oz.)

If your head is spinning at the thought of these PROPOSED changes what can you do? Well now is your chance:

First Step: Check out the details and facts on the Policy Memo 28-2011 available at www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/governance/policy.htm Section 203, HHFKA to make sure you understand how this will affect your program. List your concerns in a format that you can send on to USDA.

Second Step: This is a proposed rule which means now is the time to make your opinion and comments known.

This is how easy it is: When to comment... 60-day comment period from date of publication which was Feb. 8, 2013, so the window of opportunity is until April 9, 2013.

Where to comment: • Online: http://www.regulations.gov• By mail: Julie Brewer, Chief, Policy and Program Development Branch

Child Nutrition Division, Food and Nutrition Service P.O. Box 66874, Saint Louis, MO 63166

Revitalizing the School Lunch Line through Fingerprint Identification Part 3 of 3

By now many principals, superintendents, administrators and K-12 food service operators have heard of school lunch biometrics, or the use of high tech devices such as fingerprint readers, to recognize students and allow for the automated payment and accounting of school lunch purchases.

Once the province of the FBI and criminal investigators, fingerprint technology is now regularly being harnessed at K-12 schools around the nation. Not for Orwellian motives such as surveillance, identifica-tion or tracking, but for school lunches and breakfasts. Examples cited in this report include the Penn Cambria and Wilson School Dis-tricts in Pennsylvania; JSerra Catholic High School in San Juan Cap-istrano, California; and Fairfield School District of Fairfield, Texas. Yet this is only a small sampling of the hundreds of school districts across the United States that are currently implementing such sys-tems.

Using fingerprint ID technology, foodservice operators are not only speeding lunch lines and simplifying payment, but also virtually eliminating lunch fraud, bullying, and reversing the trend of declining reimbursement for programs such as the National School Lunch Pro-gram (NSLP). Moreover, because biometric systems automate the payment and accounting of school lunches, they eliminate tedious back end administrative chores such as cash, ticket, or paper-based handling, accounting, reconciling, and oversight.

At first blush, fingerprinting students as a means to improve the ef-ficiency and speed of school lunch lines often carries the “baggage” of a host of misconceptions about the technology – not to mention the privacy implications. For school district personnel, these precon-ceptions and considerations may lead to an initial hesitation to in-vestigate the benefits of such systems. Therefore, this special report attempts to clear up the myths from the hype, and to provide an accu-rate picture of the technology and its potential benefits. This special report provides information and answers to the following questions:

• A layman’s explanation of biometric technology and privacy issues• How parents can use such systems to monitor and control where their child’s lunch money is being spent

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SeCTioN Vi: Childhood obesity – A heavyweight Problem

Over twelve million kids the in U.S. are overweight. As obesity has doubled for preschool age kids and teens and tripled for pre-teens since the 1970s, a growing number of obese kids are now at risk of typically adult weight-re-lated conditions, such as type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea, and heart disease; and the number of American kids having obesity surgery has tripled. Along with the rest of the nation, parents and educators know that the childhood obesity epidemic is out of hand. What’s been unclear to them is how to ef-fectively deal with the problem.

However, biometric fingerprint readers linked to point-of-sale (POS) sys-tems and home internet connections that can help them monitor and restrict kids’ unhealthy lunch purchases while encouraging and rewarding healthy ones. “It’s now common to hear experts declare that this is the first genera-tion of kids who won’t outlive their parents due to diet and inactivity,” says Deanna McDuffie, a school wellness consultant based in Orlando, Florida “This doesn’t have to be, but it certainly may unless bad habits change.” While high fat, high sugar, convenience foods and a sedentary lifestyle are as much a problem for kids outside of school as in it, much of the furor focuses on what kids are scarfing down in school lunch lines, and for good reason. “Busy parents are realizing that they don’t really know what their kids are eating at school,” says McDuffie. “Sure, there’s a school lunch menu available. But the number one culprit is the a la carte menu, which isn’t mandated to be nutritionally balanced. It often contains all the fat and sugar you can stuff into a kid; my daughter says the three food groups in middle school are pizza, french fries, and chocolate pastries.” Even though the recently passed Federal Wellness Mandate requires the appointment of wellness coordinators for all public schools, writing school wellness policy has proven to be no easy task. While banning unhealthy food from campus may seem like a reasonable option to some parents, wellness coordinators, or school administrators, it has proven impractical so far for a number of reasons. Part of the problem is that most school cafeterias, though nomi-nally under the “school” umbrella, are actually contracted for profit entities driven by the market forces of supply and demand. If there’s no demand, there’s no profit; and cafeterias can actually go broke. “Today kids are driv-ing cafeteria food purchases; if they’ don’t see pizza and doughnuts they don’t come in,” explains McDuffie. “Cafeteria managers don’t want it that way but don’t know what else to do.”

The presence of coin-operated vending machines on school campuses dis-pensing unhealthy items such as sodas, cookies, chips, candy, and sweet-ened drinks makes matters worse, according to McDuffie. She points out that loose cash in kids’ pockets at school can also end up spent on off-cam-pus fast food or fundraiser candy. Increasingly, leading biometric providers are providing an online component that allows parents to pre-pay for school lunches as well as monitor their children’s food choices. The technology even enables parents to restrict their children’s choices to avoid ‘special diet’ conflicts or to prevent children from purchasing high fat, high sugar a la carte items. An example of this is the MySchoolAccount.com program.

Using the system, parents can view meal and a la carte purchases at home via the Internet for the last 30 days, day-by-day and item-by-item. Even breakfasts or snacks purchased at the cafeteria register show up. Via af-filiated software, parents can specify prohibited purchases such as “no a la carte items,” which an adult school cafeteria lunch worker would see “red-flagged” on the register and enforce at the time of purchase. Because

parents can monitor their child’s lunch purchases and deposit money di-rectly into the account at any time, they know exactly where, when, and how their money is spent. They know their money is spent on balanced school lunches or on specific a la carte choices rather than wasted on unhealthy or even illicit items. “The first step in fighting childhood obesity is making kids aware of and accountable for what they’re eating so they’re not buying on impulse or habit,” says McDuffie. “With biometric school lunch programs like myschoolaccount, parents know whether Jimmy had one personal pizza – typically containing 25 grams of fat -- or three. They can prohibit such a la carte purchases, if necessary.”

For parents who want to catch and acknowledge their kids for eating right, healthy food items such as salads, apples, and yogurts can also be flagged and tracked in a separate healthy food category in biometric school lunch programs. Using such programs, tracking, recognizing and rewarding healthy eating can be even more powerful when done by schools, and can be a powerful tool to fight obesity for federally required school wellness coordinators, according toMcDuffie. “Acknowledging healthy eating at the student, class, or grade lev-el is now possible with programs like MySchoolAccount.com, so kids, class-es, or entire grades can be singled out for, say, eating three or more healthy items in a week,” says McDuffie. “The technology can become a platform for integrating health and nutrition into the curriculum, using positive peer pressure, for instance, to praise or reward the second grade class that had the most documented success making wise food choices that week.”

SeCTioN Vii: Timing is Critical

Simply put, implementation of a lunch line solution needs to be done before the beginning of the school year. Not only will administrators find them-selves swamped by other issues demanding their attention, but also any new system will require installation, testing, and “tweaking” before it’s fully operational. Foresight and preparation are critical to operating a school dis-trict smoothly in the hectic first weeks of school. This is even more critical when operating and managing high profile district cafeterias, where from the first bell of the new school year, hundreds of students and staff require promptly served lunches to allow time for eating and return to class. Many point-of-sale (POS) systems, in fact - whether involving magnetic swipe cards, PIN numbers, or advanced biometric equipment using biological fea-tures such as fingerprints for identification – require initial student registra-tion. While easily manageable if acted on with some foresight, this creates a logistical logjam if left until the start of the next school year. Moreover, post-poning a cafeteria project until fall allows no time to train staff on the new system or procedures. This is particularly problematic for food service staff, having been off in the summer, to find themselves learning and operating an unfamiliar system while overseeing a hundred or more students during the rushed, stressful, school lunch period.

This special report was created by Mitch Johns, president of Food Service Solutions (FSS). Founded in1989, FSS is an innovative software developer and systems integrator, focused on the hospitality and institutional food ser-vice markets, particularly public schools. All of the school district examples in this article implemented a biometric system provided by FSS, and the MySchoolAccount.com is a feature unique to the company.

Revitalizing the School Lunch Line through Fingerprint Identification Part 3 of 3

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