Child Nutritional Services uses the Bon Appetit food services management software to run its operations. The system also allows the department to capture the information needed to obtain reimbursement from state and federal sources for free and reduced-price meals. The cashier enters the number and the information for that person is pulled up on the computer screen. This information tells the cashier whether the person should pay full price for the meal, pay a reduced price, or receive a free meal. The identification numbers allow students eligible for free and reduced-price meals to remain anonymous, and avoid feeling embarrassed or stigmatized for participating in the program.
Managers work an average of seven hours a day.
All food service employees in cafeterias work 10 months a year. Exhibit 11-5 shows the operating expenses for Child Nutritional Services broken down by expenditure type. Percentages in this exhibit represent the percentage of total expenditures , not the percentage of total revenues. Each supervisor was responsible for acting as a liaison between the department and the principals of their assigned schools and overseeing these schools' cafeteria operations. The other two positions were vacated in late 1997 and have not been refilled.