New interface leads to lunch line standstill

Food purchasing and payment within the PRJUSD began a new era by switching to an electronic system starting Mar. 1. The new system affects PRHS and both middle schools. The interface allows students to upload money to their accounts and pay with a pin number, limiting the number of cash purchases.

The new systems first day caused a the lines to move much slower than usual, ”It took like three minutes to order,” said Sophomore Daniel Roman, “they struggled with the pin and getting it all set up and finalized.”

The line that usually dissipates by the end of nutrition still had  about 30 people waiting when the 10:15 bell rang.

“I’ve been in line since the start of nutrition, and I still haven’t gotten food,” said Junior Cassie Fiell who was one of the students in line at the time. “I think this is ironic because it’s supposed to give people more food, but some people still haven’t gotten food yet.”

The change came after a memo from Food Service Director Gregg Wangard on Feb 25 which stated that “The Food Service Department is going through an upgrade to our hardware and software equipment.” This system will replace the previous equipment, of which some is approaching 25 years old.

Before the roll out, all food service staff received a total of eight hours of training over the preceding four days. Those behind the counter have hope, that the situation will improve “as we get to know the system better it’s definitely going to get easier and quicker,” Tiki Hut Worker Linda Bilderback said. “Once they know their numbers and we know the system it’s going to be so easy to just just put in their numbers and go.”