Tag Archives: lunch program

Infinity Retail Café Renovation and Expansion at Aurora Medical Center Kenosha in Kenosha, Wis.

A small linear retail location barely met the needs of visitors and staff at Aurora Medical Center Kenosha for many years. But an ever-expanding outpatient population paired with the hospital’s expansion to 73 inpatient beds eventually rendered the existing space insufficient.

Aurora-Kenosha-Cafeteria-and-Servery-1The mobile cash register station can be moved to the end of the hot food station. This allows the entire retail area to remain open and staffed with one person during weekends and evenings when transactions are low. Photo courtesy of Zimmerman Architectural Studios, Milwaukee, Wis.“The café was outdated, selections were limited due to café design and equipment necessity, customer flow was congested and café seating was limited,” says Bruce Parker, system retail and catering manager, Aurora System food and nutrition services. “We wanted a café with a fresh new look and to expand the space to disperse retail customers more evenly. And we wanted to create a retail experience that would help drive higher revenues and increase customer satisfaction.”

Finding the space to expand and meet goals of what was named Infinity Café proved challenging for the project team. “The coffee shop had a linear shape with only one service line, and back access only to bakery and cold cases,” says Christine Guyott, FCSI, RD, principal at Robert Rippe & Associates, the project’s foodservice design consultant. “Therefore, the space didn’t allow staff to change to self-serve options in low-volume traffic periods. Additional space was critically needed to make this into a right-size retail café.”

However, the project could not add any additional space to the building, so the design team used a former seating space to enlarge the servery to 1,235 square feet. The café also includes a 1,500-square-foot seating area that can accommodate 88 people. A corridor divides the seating area in half, yet allows natural light to penetrate into both areas. A new café feature is a private dining room.

Five Stations and Versatile Equipment

Aurora-Kenosha-Cafeteria-and-Servery-2Creative planning, such as shaping the salad bar to fit in a limited amount of space, opens up space for multiple menu options. Photo courtesy of Zimmerman Architectural StudiosThe larger space allows for increased and better traffic flow, giving customers much more room to see menu options, which also increased substantially. For example, a grill station with a flattop features a new gourmet burger concept called Hungry Burgers as well as daily specials. The entrée station contains an exhibition action station featuring healthy entrées and salads made to order.

Another popular new feature, the display cooking station, necessitated adding an exhaust hood onto the existing building. “This was the biggest challenge so we added it toward the back where it could be the most easily accommodated,” Guyott says.

A new sub concept named First Edition Grinders adds to menu items available in a deli area that also features specials made to order. Naan Za, a new gourmet pizza concept, features naan pizza crust with a variety of toppings.

The hot food and deli stations back up to the kitchen. The positioning allows staff to easily replenish the stations’ food items via a pass-through hot/cold unit from the adjacent kitchen. Refrigeration sits beneath the grill, flattop and charbroiler providing staff with easy access to ingredients during production. Refrigerated prep tables at the hot station and sandwich station also contribute to staff easily moving cold food prep from the kitchen into this space during down times.

Aurora medical center dining-RoomCustomers can choose among 88 dining seats, including single countertop seats overlooking the exterior courtyard, 2-tops for more privacy, banquettes of 2 or 4 for flexibility, a large table for group settings and several 4-tops. Photo courtesy of Aurora Medical Center Kenosha; photography by Bruce ParkerStaff working at the hot food and deli stations use high speed ovens as an alternative to fryers, versatile hot and cold wells, pass-through hot/cold units, open-air merchandising units, shaped steam pan inserts and serving casserole pans.

“Space was still limited so there was a focus on the use of lineal countertop space for merchandising,” Guyott says. “We designed a uniquely shaped salad bar that customers access for salad on the front side and snacks on the back side.” Customers can select from 40 rotating and occasionally themed menu items at the salad bar, which contains color-coated aluminum inserts.

The café also features a dessert station and cold and hot beverages.

Another labor-saving solution puts the cash register station on wheels so staff can move it to the end of the hot food station. “This allows the entire retail area to remain open and staffed with one person during weekends and evenings when transactions are low,” Guyott says.

The renovation generated a 33 percent increase in retail revenue during the past year. “Traffic is up in part by the addition of a new cashless employee-debit system and the acceptance of credit card transactions in the café,” Parker says. With the realization that staffing resources will continue to be crucial to support the new café, he adds, “This renovation project demonstrates that with sound planning and great project partners, an investment like this is bound to pay dividends both in increased revenue and customer satisfaction and loyalty.”

Facts of Note

  • Size of Hospital: 73 beds
  • Daily retail meal transactions: 360 average; up to 450 peak
  • Average check: $4.14
  • Hours of operation: 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Monday through Friday; 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Saturday and Sunday
  • Staffing: 2 until 10:30 a.m.; 3 from 10:30 a.m. until 11:30 a.m.; 4 for lunch from 11:30 a.m. until 2 p.m.; 3 until 2:30 p.m.; 2 until 3 p.m.; and 1 from 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
  • Website: www.aurorahealthcare.org

Innovators

  • At Aurora Kenosha: Lisa Schairer, director of support services; Bruce Parker, corporate retail and catering manager, Aurora System food and nutrition service; Margaret Muske, site leader
  • Foodservice design: Robert Rippe & Associates, Minneapolis; Christine Guyott, FCSI, RD, principal; Joy Enge, RD, senior equipment specialist; and Amy Fick, senior project manager.
  • Architect: Zimmerman Architectural Studios, Milwaukee
  • Equipment dealer: Boelter Companies, Milwaukee

District Schools Highly Satisfied With Lunch Cashier System Cafeteria Software’s performance and customer support – School Food Service Directors

The Wordware mission with Lunch Cashier system for School District ‘s  is to actively contribute to the health of children, district staff, lunch cafeteria staff, students and other eligible customers by preparing, marketing and food service cafeteria software application.. Nutritious meals will be offered at a free and reduced price for eligible students while maintaining a financially accountable program.

Wordware Lunch Cashier system assists with your staff and parents to the new lunchroom software and is always here to help with any questions that may come up encounter while the process or after implementation Schools quickly learned how helpful our team is from the beginning and they are pleased with the technical support being provided by wordware’s experienced and dedicated technical staff. Wordware Support Team set up the software for the schools and provide training to your school staff up to the level they needed to learn the ins and outs of our school cafeteria software. From the launch of the new software, School Food Service Directors, was happy  that Wordware Lunch Cashier system would be an excellent fit for the children in their school.

 

“The implementation team and trainers did a great job getting us set up and ready for the first day of school,” say many of our valuable customers. Furthermore, their Staff have not encountered any problems, but they called for general questions. Customer care representative attends the phones calls promptly and guide them with confidence in using the lunchroom management software than before. They all are extremely satisfied that with the of wordware customer support team.

 

“There are many reasons why using Wordware for our lunch software has made my job easier. The remote support and ticket system have been a life saver on many occasions. The Direct Certification is simplified and the Free and Reduced timeline has kept me on track. The upgrade to the LCS1000 Mayflower has everything I need on the family dashboard for quick and easy reference. There are letter templates that can be customized by you and the numerous reporting options available are a tremendous help in documenting the daily and monthly transaction activities.” – Jean Erd, School District of Menomonee Falls

 

The Lunch Cashier System by Wordware, Inc. is a complete, affordable, user-friendly meal accounting system for schools, including back-office and point-of-sale management software. Lunch Cashier System is one of the Top Food Service Management Software. They provide comprehensive solutions to both school administration and food service staff. Computerized Lunch Program for school cafeterias, State and Federal reporting. Parents only need to send lunch money to one family account for all family members participating in the lunch program.

The Parker School District tracks lunch using wordware’s School Lunch Software

The Parker School District tracks lunch using wordware’s School Lunch Software

Parents remember you can check your family lunch account balance by going to the Parker home-page, www.parker.k12.sd.us, “For Parents” section, Wordware link. You can now also add money to your child’s lunch account from your computer! Click the “e-Funds for Schools” link within the “For Parents” section on the Parker School website for details!

SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM (SCHOOL FOOD AND NUTRITION PROGRAM)

An accounting system and the necessary forms for its maintenance are prescribed by the StateBoard of Accounts. If these forms are properly maintained for your program, you will have little difficulty obtaining the information needed to prepare monthly federal reimbursement claims, quarterly financial reports, etc. Effective internal controls of cash receipts and meals served are built into the system by using one of several methods. The methods are the use of properly maintained and approved class rosters, prenumbered meal tickets, and cash registers.
Computerized cash systems could be used after submission and review by the State Board of Accounts. All cash register systems must be equipped with identification keys to indicate (1) paid student meals, (2) reduced price student meals, (3) free student meals, (4) adult meals, (5) a la carte sales and other additional categories the school corporation may wish to identify that may be required by the accounting system. The register must have locked-in audit tapes and non-resettable totals for each category. If any type of cash register system is used, the cashier is accountable for the cash registered on that machine when it is totaled and checked out.
If meal tickets are used, the tickets are issued to each ticket seller in pre numbered blocks. Each ticket seller is charged with the value of the tickets issued and must either turn in money or unused tickets to discharge his liability. A receipt must be issued to each ticket seller for the money deposited with the charter school. If a daily ticket is used, it is collected at the serving line; however, if the ticket is for multiple days, it is punched at the serving line as that day’s meal is served.
All methods to account for the cafeteria operation require that the person responsible for collecting and reporting the money received for meals be different from the person responsible for counting and reporting the number of meals served. Under no circumstances shall all duties be vested in a single individual. School Food Form SF-2, Daily Record of Cash Received, categorizes cash receipts on a daily basis and must be totaled monthly. School Food Form SF-2A, Daily Record of Meals/Milk Served, records daily the number of meals/milk served and must be totaled monthly and will be a source of information for preparation of the monthly claim for federal reimbursement. School Food Form SF-3, Cash Disbursements and Fund Balance, is used to record on a daily basis the disbursements of the School Food Service Program and together with the SF-2 acts as the source information for the calculation of the fund balance as shown on the SF-3. The disbursement categories Service Area Direction and Food Preparation and Dispensing are defined as: Service Area Direction. Activities pertaining to directing and managing the food service program for the school corporation. Food Preparation and Dispensing. Activities concerned with preparing and serving the food and beverages associated with the food service program. This includes operating kitchen equipment, preparing food, cooking, serving food, cleaning and storing dishes and kitchen and lunch room equipment.
17-2Forms SF-1, SF-2, SF-2A, and SF-3 shall be maintained on a daily basis and totaled monthly.
These monthly totals are a source of information for preparation of the claim for federal reimbursement, the quarterly financial report, etc. SCHOOL FOOD VERIFICATIONS OF ELIGIBILITY
We understand situations exist which could be a concern regarding charter schools test-checking the validity of information provided on the applications for free and reduced-priced meals. The results of test checks, are to be reported to the Indiana Department of Education in accordance with 7CFR 245.6(a). Some tests note a very high incidence of errors or inaccurate applications.
An error for purposes of the test-check is an approved application, attempted to be verified that cannot be verified by the program participants with requested income verification information (i.e.,paycheck stub, W-2, etc.). Program participants who have an application that cannot be verified are not always dropped from the free and reduced-price meal program and corrections in reporting and additional testing does not always occur. The State Board of Accounts is of the audit position charter schools shall request a written position from the Indiana Department of Education stating whether the corrective action taken was sufficient or if additional verifications need to be performed when high incidences of errors in test sample verifications are noted. The written communication to the Department of Education must also request a determination if any increases or decreases in funding will result to the charter school because of the concerns noted with the verification process.
SCHOOL FOOD SYSTEMS – PREPAID FOOD

Subsidiary records by student must be routinely reconciled to the cash balance and at month end.

The School Food Prescribed Forms and any approved computerized Forms will be required to be maintained in the following manner to accurately account for prepaid items. A column titled “Prepaid Food” is added to the Daily Record of Cash Received, Form SF-2, for recording prepaid amounts received which have not been identified as to revenue type, i.e., lunch, breakfast, etc. Amounts will be entered both in “Prepaid Food” and “Total Cash Received” for each day because cash has been received. Another column “Prepaid Food Applied” is also added to Form SF-2, which will show periodic (and monthly) activity whenever prepaid meals are identified (charged to breakfast, lunch, etc.). Amounts in “Prepaid Food Applied” must at all times equal for each day, the amounts charged to various categories, i.e., student lunch, adult breakfast, etc. that were not paid for in cash. Amounts will not be added to “Total Cash Received” because cash has been previously entered and recognized in “Prepaid Food”. You are merely transferring “Prepaid Food” to the applicable categories.
The final column added to SF-2 is “Prepaid Food Trust”, which is the running balance column which shows the difference between “Prepaid Food” and “Prepaid Food Applied”. The amounts in “Prepaid Food Trust” are deducted from the “Balance” column in SF-3 Form, School Food Service Cash Disbursements which then should equal the amount in the new SF-3 Column “Available Cash Balance.”
Amounts are not entered in “Total Cash Received” because “Prepaid Food Trust” is merely a balance column. Computerized systems must provide a list, by student, of cash balances which should sum to the “Prepaid Food Trust.”

District Schools Highly Satisfied With Lunch Cashier System Cafeteria Software’s performance and customer support – School Food Service Directors

Wordware mission with Lunch Cashier system for School District ‘s  is to actively contribute to the health of children, district staff, lunch cafeteria staff, students and other eligible customers by preparing, marketing and food service cafeteria software application.. Nutritious meals will be offered at a free and reduced price for eligible students while maintaining a financially accountable program.

Wordware Lunch Cashier system assists with your staff and parents to the new lunchroom software and is always here to help with any questions that may come up encounter while the process or after implementation Schools quickly learned how helpful our team is from the beginning and they are pleased with the technical support being provided by wordware’s experienced and dedicated technical staff. Wordware Support Team set up the software for the schools and provide training to your school staff up to the level they needed to learn the ins and outs of our school cafeteria software. From the launch of the new software, School Food Service Directors, was happy  that Wordware Lunch Cashier system would be an excellent fit for the children in their school.

“The implementation team and trainers did a great job getting us set up and ready for the first day of school,” say many of our valuable customers. Furthermore, their Staff have not encountered any problems, but they called for general questions. Customer care representative attends the phones calls promptly and guide them with confidence in using the lunchroom management software than before. They all are extremely satisfied that with the of wordware customer support team.

“There are many reasons why using Wordware for our lunch software has made my job easier. The remote support and ticket system have been a life saver on many occasions. The Direct Certification is simplified and the Free and Reduced timeline has kept me on track. The upgrade to the LCS1000 Mayflower has everything I need on the family dashboard for quick and easy reference. There are letter templates that can be customized by you and the numerous reporting options available are a tremendous help in documenting the daily and monthly transaction activities.” – Jean Erd, School District of Menomonee Falls

The Lunch Cashier System by Wordware, Inc. is a complete, affordable, user-friendly meal accounting system for schools, including back-office and point-of-sale management software. Lunch Cashier System is one of the Top Food Service Management Software. They provide comprehensive solutions to both school administration and food service staff. Computerized Lunch Program for school cafeterias, State and Federal reporting. Parents only need to send lunch money to one family account for all family members participating in the lunch program.