Cashless catering

With diet a key factor in improving students’ concentration and achievement in schools and colleges, it is vital that your catering systems are designed to make lunchtimes as efficient as possible so that each student has a positive experience.

With 25 years’ of continuous development, Civica Cashless Solutions has been helping schools and colleges not only meet the changing government requirements around meal services, but also make significant cost and time efficiencies. Our pre-order systems promote menu choice, increase sales and enable catering teams reduce waste. EPOS and cloud-based ID Management systems increase throughput at mealtimes, enabling your catering staff to serve students quickly and efficiently, reducing the delays associated with cash and preserving the anonymity of students in receipt of Free School Meals.

Primary

Our solution for the primary phase is designed to help schools manage Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM) and account for the Pupil Premium investment. With simple and efficient meal pre-order functionality, it provides parents visibility of their child’s meal choices. Stakeholder reports can easily be generated, allowing you to make informed decisions about where to allocate future spend.

Secondary

Our cashless catering solution for secondary schools and academies reduces the amount of cash in school, speeding up serving times and minimising the delays associated with cash transactions. It also encourages students to purchase food from the school caterers, reducing the risk of them making unhealthy eating choices by spending cash elsewhere. As each student uses the same method of payment, any stigma attached to recipients of Free School Meals (FSM) is eliminated. The solution allows for menu scheduling, meal deals, allergy alerts, pre-ordering and kiosks, alongside comprehensive stock management, forecasting and reporting.

Multi-academy trusts

Alongside realising the cost and efficiency benefits of our primary and secondary solutions, MATs are able to take advantage of enhanced reporting and centralised menu schedules. Products and prices can be controlled centrally, and stock can be managed at a MAT or individual academy level.

Further and higher education

For colleges and universities, our solution combines our cashless catering, ID Management and EPOS expertise to provide an integrated payment solution for today’s students. Automated biometric permissions, allergy alerts, meal deals and menu scheduling/rotation speed up your institution’s meal service, and with comprehensive ID management, your students can use their ID for door access, print management, libraries, photocopying, e-registration, vending and lockers.

Local authority, catering and ICT providers

Designed in conjunction with some of the UK’s top catering managers, our cashless solution allows local authorities, caterers and ICT providers to manage provision across all of the schools in their estate. The system can be tailored to meet each school’s specific demographic, school meal numbers and student and staff needs. School operational data in terms of FSM, UIFSM, subsidised and cash-paying sales can be accessed and reported on quickly and efficiently at multiple levels, significantly reducing administration.

Why choose cashless catering?

Increases throughput at mealtimes, enabling staff to serve students quickly and efficiently

Reduces the amount of cash being taken to school, minimising the risk of lost change or spending on unhealthy foods offsite

Reduces the risk of bullying by increasing the anonymity of pupils in receipt of free school meals

As an Academy group we are completely reliant upon our till system always working at optimum capacity. The system is very easy for the Till Operators to use and even easier for pupils. It is safe and reduces pupils’ risks from having to carry money into school every day. Our group of schools is growing rapidly and as we grow we will use cashless solutions in all new ventures without hesitation.
James Mealings, Executive Catering Operations Officer, Tudor Grange Academies Trust