Real-Time Numbers Generate Cost Savings for Huber Heights City Schools Nutrition Department

Overview
No newcomer to school nutrition, Beckie Lowman of Huber Heights City Schools (OH) has been at it for 23 years. So she’s well-versed in understanding what functions a robust school cafeteria software system must deliver.

Huber Heights had been using another popular system, when the district introduced new schools and renovated others, providing an opportunity to upgrade their school cafeteria software. According to Beckie, her IT recognized that selecting Meals Plus was a “no brainer.” The ease of the Meals Plus system, combined with their ready tech support reassured all that it was ideally suited to the district’s needs.

Seeing a Difference
But it wasn’t until Beckie and her staff actually started working with Meals Plus that heartily agreed. “Meals Plus allows us to print out everything we need in one afternoon for state and district reports. Before, we had to devote hour after hour to combining numbers from a variety of sources. Plus the real-time features provide us with unquestionable reliability – we’re confident in the numbers we pull daily and monthly,” she says.

For her, the biggest surprise was when it came time to complete Ohio’s CN7 and CN6 reports. “I expected to have to create a hybrid of forms for my end-of-month state report. But when I put in my district, up popped the exact Ohio form I needed! I actually said out loud, ‘Are you kidding me?!’ Everything matched exactly and I’m no longer creating spread sheets,” she said.

Results
The immediate access to real-time numbers is also a cost-saving advantage. “I can go in anytime to get my breakfast counts without having to interrupt my school cafeteria managers. And I also can check student balances when a parent calls. If I need to know something, it’s readily available and reliable.” As a result, her secretary no longer spends an hour every day on record keeping, she just pushes a button. And to her surprise, she was also able to save on anticipated labor costs. With new schools, new cafeterias and new software, she anticipated needing new staff. But Meals Plus proved so easy to implement, she was able to maintain her current staffing levels without adding to personnel costs.

Evidently, even the parents of Huber Heights City Schools agree. Skeptical that parents would participate in the online payment system, LunchPrepay.com, Beckie now admits, “I was wrong! Looking back, I suppose the parents and I all wonder how we lived without it!”

Certainly Meals Plus has turned this smaller school district into one that is setting a new standard for cafeteria cost and time efficiencies. “I recommend Meals Plus to anyone who will listen,” Beckie says.