With a health survey for England stating that unless immediate action is taken 50% of our nation’s children will be classified as obese by 2020, now, more than ever, the pressure is on for parents and schools to encourage a healthier diet and lifestyle. The increasing availability of healthy school meals and the support of parents to encourage a healthier diet is an easy step in the right direction. Ensuring pupils listen and adapt these new lifestyle decisions proves more difficult.
Cashless payment systems offer a solution for schools to record school meal uptake and for parents to ensure their children are eating a healthy diet. Parents load the child’s individual payment card with cash which is then used to pay for onsite school meals. The card can be loaded, by parents, with a daily spend limit and allows the option to exclude specific food groups (i.e. bar all meals containing fried food), giving parents greater control over their child’s diet. Even where healthy meals are brought in pupils vote with their feet and lunch ends up a bag of crisps and can of coke from the corner shop.
“There is an ever growing demand from academies, especially now parents can control the daily spend on the card and ensure their money actually reaches school. The schools also find great benefit through resource and cash handling savings.” Said Gary Heath, GiroVend Managing Director
More schools and academies are adopting cashless payment systems to eliminate the need for cash onsite, reduce canteen waiting times and offer a single card solution to reduce administration costs. Each student has an individual electronic payment card that they use to purchase their school meals. Parents load the card with funds, eliminating the need for pupils to carry cash. The card can only be used to purchase meals on school premises, “this ensures lunch money is actually used to buy lunch, and keeps the pupils on site during lunch breaks”, says Gary. “The system allows parents to limit daily spend allowance and provide allergy alerts, giving them greater control over their child’s diet”.
The need to adapt a healthier culture does not look like its going to fade away soon. Reports such as that by the recent British Medical Association on adolescent obesity stated the negative effect on psychological wellbeing and reinforces the requirement to bring about positive changes for the benefit of future generations.