Parents soon will be able to monitor their children's school lunch, even when they don't pack it themselves.
Hamilton County Schools officials are putting the finishing touches on a Web-based program called MealpayPlus that will let parents put money on their child's meal account electronically and track what they eat.
"This is just another way for us to be more technologically advanced," said Danielle Clark, the school system's spokeswoman.
Parents now must credit their child's account or pay for meals with cash or a check. Ms. Clark said the school system often ends up with several thousand dollars of unpaid cafeteria charges. Officials hope the new program will cut that amount.
Mary Wright, whose son, Jake, is in kindergarten at Spring Creek Elementary, said the new system will be more convenient. "It's so handy. You don't have to worry about the little guy losing the check if he drops his backpack in a mud puddle or something," she said.
Jake eats breakfast and lunch every day at Spring Creek. Ms. Wright said she'll be glad to be able to monitor the food he eats.
Ms. Clark said the service costs the school system nothing. "The company leverages a fee on parents who put money electronically into the account," she said.
Carolyn Childs, director of school nutrition for Hamilton County, said the system will be tested for several weeks, and should be ready for parents' use within a month.
Kelli Gauthier covers K-12 education in Hamilton County for the Times Free Press. She started at the paper as an intern in 2006, crisscrossing the region writing feature stories from Pikeville, Tenn., to Lafayette, Ga. She also covered crime and courts before taking over the education beat in 2007. A native of Frederick, Md., Kelli came south to attend Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in print journalism. Before newspapers, ...
I'm not so sure that charging parents to pay for school lunch is a good way to ensure fewer unpaid charges. I've looked around on the MealpayPlus website (http://www.mealpayplus.com) and can't seem to see exactly how much they charge per deposit.
I agree that knowing when your child is out of money is tricky since no bill or anything like that is ever sent. I would suggest a simple system that emails the parent whenever the account drops below 5 lunches or so. Then we can send more money that week. As a parent, I'm always weary of companies that offer critical services at "no charge" to the school or district. Guess who gets the charge.
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