With the end of the school year upon us, now is the perfect time to make sure your front of house (Point of Sale) and back of house (Menu Planning, Inventory) systems are ready for their long summer slumber.

You may have been asking yourself, I'm done serving... now what?  Don't worry, you're not alone! Here are 7 things you can do to keep your cafeteria systems happy this summer:

Has this scenario ever happened to one of your cashiers?

The bell rings and before they can even sign into their POS stations, a line of kids is stretched around the whole cafeteria waiting for a hot, nutritious lunch.

In many schools across the country, students get 30 minutes or less to go through the lunch line and eat their lunch. Often times, the lunch period might even be split with recess or other school activities.

This makes the job of a cashier especially critical for making sure students get through the serving line as quickly as possible.

In America, we have become accustomed to what the typical school lunch looks like.  But in other countries, kids are served fare that's similar in some ways and strikingly different in other ways.  This curiosity led me on a search to find some of the most interesting school lunches served around the world:

Put those used milk and juice cartons to good use with the Carton 2 Garden Contest sponsored by Evergreen Packaging. They're looking for schools who can come up with the most creative way to construct a garden made from recycled milk/juice cartons and share their experience.

Since its passing in 2010, the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act (HHFKA) has brought the hot-button issue of childhood obesity and school nutrition to center stage.  For better or worse, this act has changed the entire industry from the way manufacturers formulate their food items for schools to the specific recipes that are placed on cafeteria menus.  Even news outlets, celebrity chefs and parents have joined the discussion.