The year 2020 was a major game changer in school food service.
The pandemic took hold and it was imperative that K-12 nutrition programs find inventive ways to safely feed students no matter what.
One of the biggest responses to COVID-19 was to make food service as contactless as possible.
In addition, many school nutrition programs switched to serving lunch in the classroom or staggering lunch times further to reduce the number of students in the cafeteria.
The thing is…food service in K-12 schools is likely to operate much as it does currently for the foreseeable future. Even our VP of Nutrition Services (and former Lunch Lady) agrees!
The pandemic continues to hold the nation in its clutches. Therefore, it’s more important than ever to look for solutions that will help you serve meals while keeping your staff and students safe.
In this post, you’ll learn…
Schools will return to mostly on-site instruction and COVID vaccines are on the way. And yet, there’s no denying the continued need for offsite food service.
New strains of the virus are cropping up in most states, creating a real concern over how much longer we will be living as we are right now. As you know, pivoting to offsite service (if you haven’t already) is super painful if your nutrition management software is isn’t flexible.
To meet the challenges of today’s school food service and prepare for what’s coming, it’s important to look for an all-in-one system that’s easy to use and will help you feed students without placing too much strain on your program.
It’s a fact: whether you’re serving in the cafeteria, offering pick up orders or a little of both, the technology you use to expedite your school lunches is key.
If you’re looking for ways to keep your students and staff safe, here are some options that will help you promote and streamline contactless lunch service.
School Nutrition Directors can now enjoy contactless, curbside and in-classroom serving with efficiencies that keeps giving throughout the school year.
A great way to ensure hybrid and virtual students are being fed is to offer curbside pickup. This allows families to pull up to your designated site to collect meals for the week.
The problem: your technology could be keeping you from expediting orders and reporting on reimbursable meals.
With a solution like LINQ Nutrition, powered by TITAN, it’s possible to promote curbside pickup with ease. Our solution makes it possible to:
You need a way to reach families wherever they are, so they always know about your program and what you’re offering.
Keeping your district’s families in the loop on the current menu or the latest curbside pickup spot helps increase participation and keeps your audience engaged.
Our solution includes fully-integrated and customizable messages you can push out in a jiffy. Plus, we offer instant reporting so you can always keep track of what messages worked best.
See how LINQ and TITAN solutions stack up against the competitor with real-time communication.
Another great way to promote contactless lunch is to make it possible for students to preorder their meals online.
Accepting online orders decreases the amount of students in the lunch line, but also makes expediting pickup orders much easier.
With online preordering from LINQ and TITAN, you can:
We are all aware that viruses are passed through human contact and by touching surfaces. The less contact we have, the better. So why shouldn’t that apply to student IDs?
As you know, students have to enter their ID number into a pin pad or they have an ID card swiped (or scanned) to properly track meals. And nothing screams contactless lunch quite like touch-free digital IDs for students.
With digital IDs from LINQ and TITAN, you can:
We have seen first-hand what a national emergency can do to school nutrition. On thing is certain: having the option to pivot to contactless lunch is essential for the future of lunch programs.
An all-in-one solution that’s flexible and scalable helps you rise to the current challenges and meet the ones you’ll face in the future.
Find out about the solutions that make it possible for nutrition programs like yours to serve meals and keep staff safe.
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