Last month, we welcomed hundreds of school professionals at our first-ever virtual Connect 2021 conference! This was a great opportunity for everyone to learn about their Heartland products, get inspired with new ideas, and connect with their peers.

This school year is likely to bring a number of new challenges and obstacles for many districts. If you're feeling unsure about what you need to do in order to get ready for the fall, you're not alone. We want to make sure you have the information and knowledge you need so your staff can stay safe and your operation can run as smoothly as possible. From serving in the classroom, creating a cashless campus, or using an online meal ordering platform, we are here to help make the 2020-2021 school year a success.

If you missed our Summer Webinar Series, don't worry! You can still check out the recordings and get prepared for the new year:

We know that for many of you, this upcoming school year may be one of the most challenging years you have ever faced. There are likely a number of new guidelines you need to adhere to, changing or fluctuating schedules for students and staff, as well as a number of decisions that have yet to be made. “Overwhelmed” is probably an understatement.

As districts start planning for the return of students in the new school year, ensuring the health and safety of staff and students is more important than ever. This new mindset requires schools to rethink some of their policies and procedures, in particular, the way they collect and manage school payments. 

Contactless payments can play an essential role in helping to limit in-person interactions and reducing physical cash handling. Many schools have already adopted an online payment solution that gives parents a convenient way to pay online, while giving staff an easy way to manage those payments.

Here are four key areas where schools can reduce cash handling:

Our school menu templates are back for the 2020-21 school year with all new designs! With four designs to choose from, these templates are the perfect way to showcase what's for lunch each day.

Now more than ever, making sure every surface in your cafeteria remains clean and disinfected when students return is critically important. The same holds true for all of your serving line hardware, including POS terminal/tablets, pin pads, cash drawers, keyboards, and mice.

We have worked closely with our vendors to develop the guidelines outlined below showing how to properly clean and disinfect your point of sale hardware.  If you’re not a Heartland customer and you purchased equipment elsewhere, please refer to the manufacturer for specific instructions. 

As you may already know, the in-person portion of our Connect conference had to be canceled, but we still wanted to make sure you and your teams had the opportunity to 'attend' these training classes this year. So we made Connect 2020 virtual! Now through July 31, you can access 50+ free online classes in our virtual training library.

Despite the vast number of school closures across the country, many of you continue to serve your communities by finding alternative ways to feed students while also fielding questions from parents. In challenging times like these, we are so grateful for people like you, and we couldn't be more honored to partner with your district.

As you work to navigate this new landscape, we want to do all that we can to help. Below are a few resources that will hopefully provide some assistance to you and your staff:

With many schools needing to close or extend breaks, we want to help you get the word out to your community about emergency feeding site locations or important COVID-19 updates.

For districts using MealViewer, here are a few features that might be able help: