Microchip to allow wallet-free drinking
By Auslan Cramb, Scottish Correspondent
(Filed: 17/01/2005)

A Scottish nightclub is about to become the first in Britain to offer its customers the chance to have a microchip implanted in their arm to save them carrying cash.

The "digital wallet", the size of a grain of rice, guarantees entry to the club and allows customers to buy drinks on account. Brad Stevens, owner of Bar Soba in Glasgow, said his customers had responded enthusiastically to the idea.

The VeriChip is inserted by a medical professional and then scanned for its unique ID number as a customer enters the bar.

"There are a number of advantages, from instant access, to not having to carry money or credit cards, to letting bar staff know a customer's name and favourite drink," said Mr Stevens. "By the time you walk through the door to the bar, your favourite drink is waiting for you and the bar staff can greet you by name."

However, he said the bar would also have to make sure that customers with the chip had a limit on how much they could spend to prevent them drinking beyond their ability to pay.

The scheme was criticised by a spokesman for the Scottish Executive, who said the microchip could encourage excessive drinking, and by Notags, a consumer group set up to resist the spread of radio frequency identification devices.

A spokesman said: "The chip contains your name and ID number and, as this could be read remotely without your knowledge, that is already too much information."

Our clients speak volumes

Everybody's more relaxed. Young lunch packers would often fret about losing lunch money on the way to the cafeteria. Now they just swipe their finger and charge their account. A substitute teacher would throw the old laborious system into chaos. Now I spend more time teaching."
Jackie Meyers, Kindergarten Teacher

"Both students and teachers no longer have to worry about the lunch process or managing money. The ones who forgot their lunchbox on the bus just get in line and debit another lunch. Those low income kids who used to plop down only 40 cents in front of peers with $1.25 aren't singled out. And the fickle eaters who order a PB&J in the morning, only to realize at noon that ravioli was the way to go, aren't bound by the decision. The new scanning system allows the student to decide what they'll eat as they enter the line."
USATODAY.COM, February 2, 2001

"Since we put the 'solution' in 3 years ago here at Penn Cambria our participation has increased by 12%, our revenue is up $94.00 per student annually, our breakfast program doubled and we increased our Free and Reduced percentage by 3.5%.

We aren't piled up in paper and spend less than an hour a day on reporting for both the business office and state/federal requirements. We have time to plan and poll the students three times a year to make sure we are serving what they want. Our cooks get together to plan new menus and refine the existing one. The 6 site managers now work as a team. It's been a nice transition to watch.

They standardized every recipe. Both the kids and staff say the quality and the choices have never been better. That's part of the reason for the revenue increases. The other is giving the kids a debit account.

As the parents now send us checks for a week, month or whatever they choose, we don't have to deal with lost or stolen lunch money and the parent knows that the money he gives his children really does get used for lunch. There is even an educational aspect of the program.

Since the student can charge both meals and al a carte, (with parental permission), they learn how to manage a bank account. Sure a parent has a conniption when Josh goes a little overboard the first month, but I print them a detailed statement of every day, every item. After that, Josh has to work it out with mom and dad with regards to what he is eating and how much he is allowed to spend each day.

If it persists to be a problem we just turn his al a carte account off. As for meals, I never turn a kid down for a meal. We'll get the money somehow. My bad debt last year was less than $400 for 2000 students.

There's no lost lunch money, the teachers have no responsibility for any cafeteria function, (they absolutely love it), and the administration is ecstatic with the results.

What Food Service Solutions has is a whole lot more than point of sale or software. They have a 'solution' or find one for almost any need I have when it comes to processing or interpreting information.

The state auditor showed up in August for our new summer feeding program. He planned the afternoon and was done in less than a half hour. Said he didn't know how I pulled all the information together but that every school ought to have this type of reporting capability.

We are the first school district in the country to implement the biometric fingerscan for school lunch and after working out all the kinks it is quick, reliable and well accepted by everyone in the district. The elementary kids love it and the bigger kids know they can't beat it. They can't put in someone elses PIN number, swap or give their card to someone else.....best of all they can't forget or lose them.

We get eight to ten kids through the line a minute with no cash and six to eight when the student is fumbling around looking for his money. We discourage cash in the line, but just like the fingerscan, it isn't mandated".

Milton Miller, Food Service Director
Penn Cambria School District
814-886-7753 or mamiller@pcam.org

"The system is so simple, it's almost child's play. The elimination of lunch tickets helps protect the privacy of students participating in Free and Reduced lunch programs."
FOX News

"I know for a fact that when I send in my check the money is being used for school lunch. It sure beats trying to find $1.60 every day for each of my three children".
Parent

"Easy as pie. I wait until all other kids are done. I put my finger down on it--use the pointy finger--and in just a little while, the red light shut off. My money comes from my bank account."
Austin"Zeke" Adams, Student age 7

"The fingerscan follows the national privacy acts. Unless the finger is there, it can't tell you who it is. Once the students realized that the police can't come in and say 'Hey, I found this fingerprint on the Burger King robbery, can I match it in your database?' the students were OK with it".
Bob Engen, President
Education Biometrics Technology
Caledonia, MN

"It's certainly a lot faster and the most of the kids keep accounts so they can eat what they want when they want. Only a few of the 700 students have opted to use a PIN number instead of the fingerscan".
Linda Kelly, Cafeteria Manager
Welsh Valley School, Philadelphia, PA

"The kids move through the line faster and really like the high tech biometric technology. Not even the cashiers know who is free and reduced and the kids sense this. We have utilized the extra reimbursement to improve our food quality, which helped increase participation and we are feeding more kids. The system is a total success".
Dr. Russell Strange, Superintendent
Penn Cambria Area High School

"As a teacher I love the new cafeteria solution. We used to spend 20-30 minutes collecting lunch money, handling the cash and giving change.. That amounts to an extra 60 hours of learning time for the kids annually."
Sue Creighan, First Grade Teacher

"You don't have to bring lunch money. So, somebody can't take it"
Student-age 13, Welsh Valley Middle School, Philadelphia, PA

"I like the fact that when I have a question, problem or concern that Food Service Solutions has real people answering the phone-no voice mail-and they really do understand that getting an answer to the issue at hand is a priority. A-plus for service."
Dawn Wheeler, Food Service Director
Garfield Heights School District
Garfield Heights, OH