Typically, high school students swipe a student identification card across a scanner to buy lunch. Those cards make sense for older students, who routinely carry wallets or purses. They also use the cards to check out library books and attend school functions. Most middle and elementary students don't carry wallets, however, and typically lose or damage their cards. As a result, the district, with 14,000 students, uses Social Security numbers from sixth grade through high school, and will create a four-digit number for younger children.
Students memorize their numbers effortlessly.
The younger the people on staff, the better the training goes. Not so Addie Dyson, the food service director at North Chevy Chase Elementary. Dyson even resembles cafeteria ladies of days gone by, her hair neatly pinned under a hairnet, her smile as warm as a biscuit. Yet only three weeks into the new lunch system, and she's a computer speed demon. Which is not to say it's perfect.