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sQuid smart card technology finds a critical role in school canteens
16 Jun 2010
School meals have leapt firmly into the public's consciousness in the past five or six years as a number of high profile campaigns have set out to improve the health of our nation's school children.
Jamie Oliver, the celebrated TV chef who is now in the US attempting to change the eating habits of one of the most overweight nations on Earth, declared war on the turkey twizzler and other unhealthy former favourites in 2005.
The chef's campaign was no mere publicity stunt. The nation's children were worryingly unhealthy.
A quarter of all teenagers were obese. If the gravity of this fact needs emphasis, the point is hammered home when one considers that children struggling with obesity issues in their early teens are more than twice as likely to die by the age of 50.
Nothing short of a generation's life was at stake.
Half a decade on, technology is helping to push his campaign further.
A chance encounter with a headmaster led Innovate's founders to start the company two and a half years ago. Both had a background in catering but campaigns such as Oliver's convinced them of a gap in the market for an organisation which provided nutritious, tasty food in schools.
Innovate now operates at the forefront of the catering revolution taking place in the UK's schools.
Derek Lubner, the organisation's marketing director, places contactless smartcard technology firmly at the centre of his company's success.
"The cashless card is critical in the whole piece," he said.
Pre-loaded with cash by their parents, the card in question allows pupils to purchase items from the school canteen without having to carry money around with them.
"The student has to use that money in the school catering environment," he continued.
"Our job to offer healthy meals [is made] a lot easier and prevents the children from spending their money on sweets or anything else.
"It provides an umbrella to the whole offering that we provide at schools."
Nationwide, approximately a third of pupils eat food prepared in their school canteens. However, in the 42 schools that Innovate cater for, there has been a noticeable increase in uptake.
According to Mr Lubner, this is significant.
"When we first come into schools the average [amount spent in the school canteen] is around 45p per child. We usually increase that up to anywhere between £1 and £1.20," he said.
Though Lubner was keen to emphasise the difficulties inherent in proving a link between a healthier school diet and improved academic or behavioural performance (despite research from the school food trust intimating a correlation), he did say that headmasters had reported positive changes.
"Headmasters and business managers at schools are noticing better performance and better concentration," he said, noting that interest in food among the children themselves was also increasing.
"They are starting to believe in the importance of healthy food," he said. "We did a very interesting programme in a school in Putney where we did a nutrition based diet for the rugby squad over a two month period.
"The kids playing rugby were put on a special diet, given food that was designed to improve their fitness etc and it went down well with them. They really enjoyed it.
"The school got a lot out of it and they're running that again."
Organisations like sQuid are playing a pivotal role in enabling catering companies like Innovate to operate.
Lubner doesn't pretend to understand the technical ins and outs of sQuid's services but is nonetheless extremely pleased with the results.
"A big issue for schools is that they don't want to have cash floating around," he said.
"It's a lot easier, it's a lot cleaner and it's a lot more supportive on a card.
"From a marketing point of view, we certainly use the data that comes out of the cashless card to promote products and the ease of use of the card to new schools."
The advantages of the technology his company uses were illustrated for Lubner at a recent visit to watch Arsenal play.
"It's amazing how often people come round at half time wanting their beer, hotdog or whatever but with a line four miles long and only a few minutes for half time, [the club] loses a huge amount of revenue because people just can't wait.
"It's quite a similar environment to a school. If the bell goes you have to go back to class. From our point of view sQuid card increases turnover for us because the kids are able to come through quicker. With cash it takes a lot longer per transaction to get the kids through the till."
Obesity remains a massive problem for many schoolchildren in this country but the work of organisations such as Innovate, and the technology that facilitates it, could well see Jamie Oliver in the US a while longer.
