As food costs continue to climb and many families struggle to make ends meet, school districts across the country continue to see a rise in unpaid meal charges.  In SNA's State of School Nutrition 2014 survey, nearly 71% of schools reported that their meal program had unpaid student meal debt at the end of the 2012-13 school year.

Managing school funds from various entry points within a school district can be time consuming, redundant, and labor intensive. So much so, that the thought of changing the way you handle the exchange of funds is overwhelming and exhausting, making it easier to continue business as usual.

If you add up all the time that you spend entering fees, exporting reports, depositing checks in different accounts, and fixing errors, it is almost a full time job just managing funds. If you find yourself spending the vast majority of your time focusing on funds management, it might be time to consider a single solution to help simplify this process.

Look for a solution that has features that will allow you to be flexible in the way you manage funds, save time, reduce errors, make payments easy for parents, and, ultimately, go cashless on campus.

We're excited to announce the launch of our brand new website!

With the new site, you can learn more about Heartland’s latest product developments like MSB Anywhere - our mobile Point of Sale solution that allows you to take student payments anywhere on campus.

You can also find out what tradeshows and conferences we will be attending, or register for upcoming software training, like our Mosaic User Group Training or NUTRIKIDS Point of Sale online training. 

We’re thrilled about all the information we’ll be able to share with you on our new website and we hope you like it too.

This year, three (3) Grand Prize winners will receive a complete set of the Lunch Lady Graphic Novels signed by the author, Jarrett J. Krosoczka.

Five Heartlanders attended the 44th Annual Legislative Action Conference (LAC) held on February 28-March 1, 2016 in Washington, D.C.  Child Nutrition Reauthorization was the primary focus of this year’s conference.  As discussed in this blog, the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act authorizes all of the federal school meal and child nutrition programs, which provide funding to ensure that low-income children have access to healthy and nutritious foods.

For many people (including myself), talking about data protection can be a boring topic.  Like buying insurance for your car or house, we don't want to think about the consequences of not having it until something goes wrong.  Well, the same logic applies to your program data.  Whether your district uses a Point of Sale (POS), Menu Planning or Inventory solution, making sure your data stays safe is paramount.

Depending on the size of your school, resources available to your program, and the structure of class times, some breakfast service models may benefit your school more than others.

Thousands of schools have implemented new service models that have transformed their programs and increased overall participation.

One of these four service models may be the perfect fit for your school:

The following post was written by Barry Sackin of Sackin & Associates. 

What is Child Nutrition Reauthorization?

This June will mark the 70^th anniversary of the National School Lunch Act (NSLA), now named after Sen. Richard B. Russell from Georgia who is considered to be the father of the legislation.  When it was first enacted, the NSLA was what is called a “grant-in-aid” for states to develop and support school lunch programs.  Over the years, this approach has been replaced by the program we know today.  The way it has made the changes is through regular reauthorizations, or legislation that amends the law.  There have been almost two dozen reauthorizations over the past 70 years, as well as changes enacted in legislation between the regular schedule.

Trading high-calorie or high fat-ingredients for lower-calorie or lower-fat ingredients is a great way to make your favorite recipes healthier, without sacrificing flavor.

This month's FitFuture Parent Newsletter provides a list of quick and easy ingredient substitutions parents can make to just about any recipe for a guilt-free family meal.

Heartland’s own Pete Belknap, National Account Manager, shares his experience of the 2016 School Nutrition Industry Conference.