The Dish - Quarterly E-Newsletter - Winter 2014

Protect Your District's Data!

Meals Plus is excited to announce that we now offer Windows Server Monitoring and Automated Cloud Backup! Both are designed to ensure that data is safe and to keep Meals Plus fully functional, so you can tend to the more important stuff.

Did You Know?

• Every week 140,000 hard drives
           crash in the United States
• 25 million Windows computers
           crash each day

That's why regular server monitoring and cloud based backup is critical! Reduce your risk of data loss with Server Monitoring and Cloud Based Backup.

• Server Monitoring: Your server will be monitored
           24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year by the
           Microsoft certified Meals Plus IT team.
• Cloud Based Backup: You get daily, automated, cloud
           based data backup with Meals Plus recovery assistance
           to keep your mind at ease.

Click here for more information or contact your Meals Plus Account Representative for more information and pricing!

Coming Soon:
'Keeping the Lunchline Moving' White Paper

"Keeping the Lunchline Moving: Tips to Increase the Speed of Your Lunchlines" is co-written by William (Billy) Richie, the Food and Nutrition Services Computer Technician at Anderson County School District 5 in Anderson, SC. Billy has put the lunchrooms in his district to the test and after implementing some changes, he has increased the speed of the lunchlines so much they can check out a grade level of 5 to 6 classes of 25 students per class in 10 minutes!

The lunchlines are moving so fast, in fact, that the speed of the their transactions could not keep up with the internet speed! That's right - the district had to upgrade their bandwidth to increase the speed of the internet so that they could keep up with how fast the cashiers were processing transactions.

The white paper will be available soon, so keep an eye on your Inbox and follow our blog for the official announcement! The white paper will be available to download for free on our website.

In case you missed it, we have three other white papers that are available to download for free:

• Not All Doom and Legume: Your Survival Guide to the
           USDA Meal Pattern Requirements
• Fiscal Survival 101: Financial Succcess in the Era of the
           Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act
• Managing the Money on the Pantry Shelves: Inventory
           Management for Your Child Nutrition Program

New Case Study: Isle of Wight County (VA)

The latest school district to be featured as a Meals Plus Case Study is Isle of Wight County School District in Smithfield, VA. Director of IOWC Food Services, Pearl Taylor, notes how the Meals Plus system and its centralized database saves the district hours of manual data, especially when it comes to managing free and reduced students and her district staff's time and attendance. She raves, "Payroll used to take me at least six hours per week and now I can complete it in minutes!" To read the complete case study, click here! IOWC uses Meals Plus Point of Sale, Student Eligibility, Menu Planning and Nutrient Analysis, Financial, Accountability, and Time Clock to manage the eleven cafeterias in their district. Click here to read more of our Meals Plus Case Studies!

Customer Spotlight

Walter Robinson, Millbrook CSD (NY)

The Dish: How long have you been using Meals Plus?
Walter Robinson: I have been using Meals Plus since September 2012.

TD: What duties and responsibilities does your position entail?
WR: I supervise four school cafeterias for Millbrook CSD in Millbrook, NY (two elementary, one middle and one high school). I am responsible for staffing, all food ordering, production, inventory, sales and reimbursements.

TD: What aspects of your position do you enjoy the most?
WR: The students and seeing them grow into young adults.

TD: What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
WR: I enjoy playing golf and watching my daughter compete in field hockey and softball.

TD: What is your favorite "like" about Meals Plus and/or how has it helped your operations?
WR: I like how readily you can access information, from students' accounts to particpation for reimbursements. It saves us time and we can all use more time!

Meet the Team: Tim

Get to know the Meals Plus Team! Tim is the Meals Plus IT Manager and holds many accreditations, including Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert, a Microsoft Certified Professional, a Cisco Certified Network Associate, CompTIA Security+ certification, VMware Certified Professional and Apple Certified Help Desk Specialist.

The Dish: How long have you been at Meals Plus?
Tim: Over five years.

TD: What duties and responsibilities does your position entail?
T: Managing all aspects of the company’s IT, including network equipment, servers, workstations, policies, security, and user training.

TD: What aspects of your position do you enjoy the most?
T: Staying current with new technologies and utilizing technology to get work done more efficiently.  Then being able to pass that information on to our customers and the help desk teams so that they can help better our customers.

TD: What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
T: Spending time with my family at the beach.

TD: What was your favorite lunch when you were in school?
T: I loved taco day!

Visit our blog to meet the rest of the Meals Plus Team!

School Nutrition Conferences

We are spreading the word on how Meals Plus makes managing your school's students, staff, menus, finances and inventory easier. Come see us at the following conferences:

In This Issue

- Protect Your District's Data
- New White Paper
- Isle of Wight Case Study
- Customer Spotlight
- Meet the Team
- Trade Shows

In Case You Missed It...

- Tips to Market Your Program

- Meals Plus 2013 Tech Support Stats

- SNIC 2014

- Protect Your Data

- Case Study: Westerville City Schools (OH)

- Three-Time Top 100 Product Winner

- Customer Spotlight: Amanda Williams, Kemper Co Schools (MS)

- Mobile Payment Site for Parents

- USDA Approved Menu Planning