Food service businesses have been particularly smart in keeping up with the latest trends in technology. For example, most American adults carry some sort of financial card in their wallet. The practical choice for any restaurant would be to invest in technology with card-reader capabilities in order to maximize the amount of customers that can be served. So, why is it that school cafeterias, which are basically restaurants, and serve hundreds of customers a day, only accept cash as a means of payment?

Evidently, school cafeterias have come a long way since the days of bringing lunch money to school, handing the lunch server your money, and waiting for your change. Now, we have a system where students can add money to their lunch accounts and purchase meals by simply using their lunch numbers. It seems as though the next step in making the lunch system more convenient for students would be to add card-reader systems, so students who do not carry cash but have a debit card could buy their lunches.

These card-reader systems could be inserted alongside the current system the lunchroom uses, maximizing the number of ways in which students could purchase their lunch. Additionally, it would provide the lunchroom employees with a system that exists completely online, discouraging the less convenient business of cash exchanging hands.

Looking beyond the implementation of debit cards readers, further endeavors could be pursued. Maybe student IDs (which are currently only used for checking out library books) could serve as an in-school debit card. In addition to using their lunch numbers to pay for their lunch, students could swipe their ID, expanding payment options for students.

This idea for expansion is not limited to the lunchroom; however many schools have implemented card systems in vending machines, as well. Implementing card-reader systems in the cafeteria is a great investment: by expanding methods of payment for the lunchroom the system could move beyond its current framework, which only accept two methods of payment.