School lunch in Gainesville; from cash box to computer - Gainesville, Florida

Food and Nutrition, April, 1986 by Kent Taylor

School Lunch in Gainesville: From Cash Box to Computer

For many people in Gainesville, Florida, GATORS means only one thing--the University of Florida sports teams. But for school lunch managers, GATORS means Gainesville Automated Terminal Online Resource System, a state-of-the-art computer project that spells relief from paperwork while providing improved accountability for the school lunch program.

In 1981, the Alachua County school board decided to make better and more extensive use of computers throughout the 30-school district. County food service director, Bronna Godwin, who has recently retired, welcomed the chance to modernize school lunch operations.

"In looking at our business systems," says Godwin, "we realized they were old fashioned and unreliable." All monies for the school breakfast and lunch programs were collected in tin cash boxes and participation counts were tallied as hash marks on a form.

"We had a totally manual system. We knew we needed a change because we were handling more money than many companies in the area. We were running a $5 million business out of tin boxes."

Special terminals installed in schools

The first area Godwin addressed was cash collection and accountability for meals served. "Accurate meal counts are important," she says, "because they dtermine federal reimbursements." After reviewing a study on how to best use available computer technology, she decided to install point-of-sale cash register terminals in each of the 30 schools.

As Godwin explains, the terminals are placed at the end of the food line like ordinary cash registers. As children move through the line, the cashier at the terminal keys in information on the sale--for example, whether the meal is served free, at reduced-price, or at full price to students. Infornation on a la carte sales and meals served to adults is also keyed in.

Each terminal has a modem attached, which allows the terminal to communicate through a separate, direct phone line to a host mainframe computer located at the school board office. The food service staff and school board accountants view data from the schools on terminals that are linked to the mainframe.

Many chain restauratns use this same type of setup since it provides accurate accounting at the point of sale with appropriate checks and balances for cash collection.

A computer program, developed as a part of GATORS, transfers data from the schools' terminals to the mainframe host computer. The mainframe computer "polls" each school terminal at night through a telecommunications software program that retrieves data on school lunch activities that day.

System is fast and accurate

Electronic polling improves accuracy over manual keypunching since data is punched in only once at the point of sale. And it is faster--it would take one person almost 8 hours to keypunch one day's data that is now transmitted from all schools in less than an hour over phone lines.

If there is a telephone transmission problem with a school, data can be keypunched into the mainframe computer. While this takes longer than telephone transmission, it is still much faster thant he old manual system.

Persuading lunch managers to change to a new computerized cash collection system wasn't easy. "I had managers break out in hives during computer training because they were used to their tin boxes and forms," laughs Godwin.

In the first year, there was a fear of dealing with technology. "The managers were initially worried about the instant feedback we had on their school lunch data the next morning," says Godwin. But due to the proper atmosphere and support, the GATORS systems has been accepted well. "Now you can't find anyone who would even think about going back to the old system," Godwin says.

One of the benefits of GATORS is that managers now have more time for food and employee supervision rather than duplication of clerical work. In Gainesville, school lunch managers can save up to 6 hours a week of their time and almost 3 hours of their employees' time a week.

At one school, 30 forms a week have been eliminated thanks to automation. USDA's Office of Inspector General audited GATORS and found that it was effective in gathering and summarizing school lunch data.

"The terminals also help speed students through the lunch lines since item costs are programmed right in," says Godwin.

Even though the GATORS computer network is extremely sophisticated, the key to its success is the simplicity, accountability and flexibility built in. Most schools use only one terminal. "We put an additional terminal in a school only if it is needed due to an additional food line," Godwin explains.

Lunch data from the secondary terminal at a school is punched into the primary register at the end of the lunch period. All data is stored in the primary register until the host computer pools it that night.

Reports help managers plan

As a part of GATORS, management reports that include information on participation, food costs, and labor costs are provided to each school manager. This enables school lunch managers to compare their costs with other schools' costs and to evaluate ways to better manage their programs.