Blog
Jul
Carrie Frank, Director
Dover-Eyota Public Schools in Minnesota grows some of their own vegetables hydroponically, right next to the serving line in the cafeteria! Carrie Frank, Food and Nutrition Director, has taken the idea of promoting locally grown foods to a new level, quite literally. In May, she purchased a “vertical garden”, a tower type display of greens and plants and placed them close to the students in the cafeteria. This year the vertical garden featured salad greens and strawberries and will expand to herbs and additional assortments of other greens in the coming school year. Carrie’s staff services four of the vertical gardens over a 4-6 week growth cycle, utilizing hydroponics. The students enjoy the opportunity to see the plants growing on the towers.
Jul
Becki and Betty had great time “Deep In The Heart of Texas” June 21-24th at the TASN Annual Conference in beautiful Grapevine, TX. Becki said, “we were able to spend time with old friends and make new ones. Our Texas family is always so helpful in giving us great feedback. We love hearing from you and we can’t wait to see everyone again in Austin next year!
Betty & Becki
Jun
Tim Pirolli
Food Service Supervisor
Pemberton Township Schools, NJ
District Snapshot
Number of Schools: 8
PCS customer since: 1995
PCS Products: PayPAMS, Online & Scanned Apps, RIGHTrak, FASTrak, ALANAs and FREDs
Tim Pirolli has been with Pemberton Township Schools for nearly forty years. Beginning his tenure at the district as a Foods Teacher, eighteen years later Tim became the Food Service Supervisor for the district. With over 50 percent free and reduced participation, Tim’s department serves 3000 meals at lunch and 1000 at breakfast across 12 locations covering 62 square miles across central NJ. Meals are also provided at four sites over the summer. Pemberton was first district in New Jersey to begin using scanned apps!
As is the case with any district the goal of the program is to offer nutritious meals and to provide fast paced service and accountability. And Tim and his staff do just that. We asked Tim what he likes most about PCS, to which he responded, “There are many point of sale companies with many products but PCS has a proven track record of service. In fact, we have NEVER had an issue that PCS Support didn’t quickly resolve. They helped with every audit!”
Jun
DJ Segraves
Regional Sales Director
DJ works the Alabama, Colorado and Utah territories and is still involved from time to time with our Florida Customers. Recently, 
DJ played an instrumental role in coordinating between the the Alabama State DOE and PCS Support to standardize district student information systems interfaces with RIGHTrak and RightNOW central office software.
This past month DJ added 5 new districts to the PCS family and has added to his own family! Congratulations DJ and Tara on the birth of their baby girl! Melody Lynn was born April 14, 2015 (8lbs 11oz and 21 inches).
When DJ isn’t working or building a larger family you can find him on the ski slopes. DJ travels to Colorado to do his snowboarding and you are likely to find him on TV in the spring helping out one of many contests that include, the Burton US Open, RedBull Double Pipe and even X Games.
Jun
Denise & Betty
Denise Lessard, DJ Segraves and Betty Zimmerman had a blast at the Florida SNA 2015 Annual Conference in Daytona Beach, May 14-16. As always they got to catch up with old friends and make new ones.
Ida & Maggie
We would like to congratulate Ida Daniels, Hamilton County Food & Nutrition Coordinator, on receiving the Director of the Year Award from Florida SNA President, Maggie Green.
Cathy & Denise
We raffled a Coach handbag and the lucky winner was Amy Hayden, Leon County Central Kitchen Manager. Unfortunately, Amy had already left by the time of the drawing, but Cathy Reed, Director of Nutrition Services, was available to pick up the bag for her.
Jun
Over the last two months, customers in 9 different regions across the country came together for PCS User Groups. Our last on-site Regional User Group was held in Alabama on June 2, which was one of the biggest user groups we have had!
Each year the feedback about the content and quality is more positive than the last, and we continue to make improvements to the User Groups and our PCS products based on customer feedback.Your participation in our pre-conference survey helped us once again to focus on the topics of greatest interest to all.
We would like to thank everyone, especially those who hosted and helped organize things in their regions, for contributing to the success of the user groups.
Apr
Last month, Ava Wojcik and Tony Diers attended the 37th Annual Alabama School Nutrition Association Expo in Montgomery, AL. They had a wonderful time making new friends and catching up with customers. It was great to hear from our TrakNOW customers that TrakNOW reports are working well for their Administrative Reviews.
PCS support has been working hard with the the ASLSDE to make sure that PCS customers can utilize a common interface with the INow enrollment system. All customers in Alabama have been contacted and many stopped by the booth to discuss utilizing this valuable tool.
Apr
Becki Rogers & Ava Wojcik attended the GSNA 2015 Annual Conference in Athens, GA April 9-11. Celebrating 60 years of feeding Georgia’s children made this a very special event. PCS was proud to be able to sponsor free Wi-fi to all attendees at the Classic Center and to provide computers for use in the Director’s Lounge. We enjoyed three fabulous fun filled days of quality time with our friends in Georgia. We are proud to have Becki serving on the Industry Advisory Board for 2 more years with GSNA. We are super proud of our friends at Grady County School District, who were honored with a Bronze Scroll and a District Scroll. Keep up the great work!
Apr
Priscilla Urban
Food Service Specialist
Ferguson-Florissant School District
District Snapshot
PCS Products Used: RIGHTrak & FASTrak
Schools: 23
PCS customer since: Spring 2013
PCS: How long have you worked at the district?
Priscilla: It will be 16 years in October.
PCS: Tell us about some of the jobs you have had in the district.
Priscilla: I was originally hired as the Secretary to the Assistant Principal at one of the Middle Schools and started at the Food Service Department in July 2000.
PCS: What is your involvement with the PCS systems?
Priscilla: I put together all the specifications for the RFP, interviewed all the candidates and tried out the software before we made the decision to choose one. After we chose PCS for our district software, I worked with with the implementation team to get everything set up. We had some very specific requests for our district and PCS made it happen. The support team was very helpful, training me on the new system. I worked very closely with the Project Manager, Jose Romani, on the special items we requested. The sales representative, Aaron Subar was also wonderful to work with.
PCS: What accomplishments are you proud of?
Priscilla: I made several changes in the Food Service Department in regards to the cash procedures,creating different ways to make sure that each cashier is accountable for cash and meals. I provide hands-on training to all managers and cashiers each year before the school year starts, individualized to their experience level.
PCS: How have PCS products helped the district?
Priscilla: I save time with the PCS system. It has great features such as the Allergy Alerts, tracking each cashier on a daily basis, and detailed reporting. The system also allows us to stop bad checks and alert the cashiers to collect money from students or adults.
PCS: What do you like best about PCS?
Priscilla: The great support. I can always call PCS to get help very quickly and resolve all the technical issues.
PCS: Is there anything new and exciting coming up for you or the food service department?
Priscilla: This is the first year that our district is on CEP, which means we’re feeding students for Breakfast and Lunch at no cost to the students. We participated in the Healthy School Breakfast Challenge and the Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Program. Our district also received grants from Midwest Dairy Council, NFL Hometown, Rainbow Days, and H.E.L.P (Healthy Eating with Local Produce) through St. Louis University.
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