Food & Nutrition [Volume 16, Number 2]

              April 1986
Just about everyone has been touched in some way by the computer revolution, and the
people who manage the food assistance programs are no exception. - Articles in this
issue look at some of the ways food program managers are using computers to improve
their programs, save money, and provide better service to people in nee~ of food help.
Automating the
Food Sta;mp
Program
In Alaska, inf.ormation from food
stamp applicants is entered directly
into a statewide computer system. In
Reading, Pennsylvania, food stamp
recipients use a plastic debit card in­stead
of paper coupons to purchase
groceries. At a Minnesota computer
complex, 27 workers process re­demption
information on 230,000 gro­cery
stores taking part in the pro­gram.
Across the country today, automa­tion
is changing the face of the Food
Stamp Program, presenting opportu­nities
and challenges for food stamp
managers at all levels.
"There is no question that as we
approach the 21st century, much of
the entire food stamp delivery system
will be automated," says Joseph Leo,
deputy administrator for management
at USDA's Food and Nutrition Service
(FNS). It makes sense, he says, be­cause
one of the best applications of
computers is keeping track of and
analyzing large quantities of data.
"For the Food Stamp Program
you're talking in the neighborhood of
20 million people getting monthly
benefits. A program serving that size
population is a perfect home for the
computer," Leo says. "In addition,
when you have a time-sensitive proc­ess,
such as meeting the needs of
hungry families, you want to be as
responsive as possible."
Accountability
also important
A multi-billion dollar program also
demands accountability. Computers
offer tremendous opportunities to
streamline benefit delivery systems
and improve accountability.
Some states have automated virtu­ally
every aspect of the food stamp
delivery process-from certification
and issuance, to follow-up investiga­tions
and claims collections. This has
helped cut down on errors, prevent
ineligible people from being certified,
and track down people who are re­ceiving
benefits fraudulently.
At the federal level, FNS is finding
new ways to use automation in track­ing
the 2% billion food coupons which
each year move through retail stores
and the banking community. The
agency is also using computers with
its quality control system, which moni­tors
errors made in a sample of more
than 65,000 cases handled in certifi­cation
and issuance office across the
nation.
In time, computers may revolution­ize
the way FNS and states work to­gether
to keep track of program infor-
Many states use computers to verify information on food stamp
applications before people are certified for the program.
Here, staff at the New Jersey Depart­ment
of Human Services help a
county verify information by checking
computerized state unemployment
compensation records.
mation, such as participation and
coupons issued. Today, most of this
data comes to FNS on paper forms,
but the agency is laying the ground­work
for receiving this data electron­ically
from the states.
A system like this would relieve the
current paradoxical situation where
some states take information from
their automated systems, enter it onto
paper forms, and mail it to FN8-all
to have FNS employees key it into
the agency's computer system.
"Clearly in the not too distant future
the potential for moving all this infor­mation
is there," Leo says. "What's
happened so far is the tip of the ice­berg.
The changes food program staff
will see between now and 1990 will
be nothing short of an automation
phenomenon they've never seen
before."
States encouraged
to move ahead
Many state and local agencies
have already seen a lot of changes .
"Right now all the states have active
projects going on to automate their
programs," Leo says. "Naturally,
some are more advanced than
others."
Ironically, some states that got into
April1986
automation early in the 1970's now
are lagging behind with outdated
equipment. Others, like Alaska,
Vermont, and Texas, have vaulted to
the forefront with more recent, state­of-
the-art systems.
In the past few years, for example,
Texas has automated its client infor­mation
intake process by installing
more than 3,300 computer work sta­tions
in its certification offices. Com­puters
guide the eligibility workers
through the interview, perform the
calculations needed to determine eli­gibility,
calculate the food stamp allot­ment
or AFDC (Aid to Families with
Dependent Children) grant, and pro­duce
a copy of the information for
placement in the client's case folder.
To encourage states to automate
their programs, FNS provides up to
75-percent enhanced administrative
funding for development of computer
systems. Once the systems become
operational, funding goes back to the
standard 50-50 federal-state sharing
of administrative costs.
To get enhanced funding, a state
first submits a proposal to FNS. FNS
regional staff work with the state to
make sure the proposal meets pro­gram
requirements, is cost-effective,
and is technologically likely to sue-ceed.
Projects involving more than
$1 million must be approved by an
executive committee at FNS head­quarters
chaired by Joe Leo.
Sharing information
helpful to many
FNS strongly encourages the trans­fer
of successful systems from one
state to another when possible. North
Dakota, for example, successfully
adapted Alaska's advanced computer
system with relatively little modifica­tion.
Such transfers make good fiscal
sense because developmental costs
for automated state welfare systems
can run into many millions of dollars.
The agency also emphasizes the
need for states to develop systems
that integrate food stamp, AFDC, and
Medicaid programs. Where complete
integration would not be cost-effective,
as perhaps in a small state, ·
FNS insists on an automated link-a
system that can communicate with
the computers in the other welfare
programs in the state-before en­hanced
funding will be granted.
Many states are taking advantage
of FNS automated dat~processing
(ADP) funding. In fiscal year 1984, 27
states received developmental fund­ing
at the 75 percent level, and 47
3
- ------------------------------------- -------
received 50 percent operatft:>nal fund­ing
for ADP. In all, FNS provided
more than $40 million for state com­puter
system costs.
In addition to funding, FNS has
provided states with technical assist­ance
packages to help them make
better use of their systems' capabil­ities.
A recent package outlined the
decisions and issues facing states
developing automated claims sys­tems.
Another package described
how states can use automated sys­tems
to verify applicants' social secu­rity
numbers.
FNS has also provided states with
a catalog of automated ''front-end"
verification techniques, which de­scribes
strategies for detecting fraud
and errors on applications before
food stamp benefits are issued. This
is in addition to a catalog of program
improvement activities, updated and
distributed each year, which de­scribes
many automated projects in
use around the country.
4
Survey shows
various uses
Because of the importance of state
and local progress in automation,
FNS has established a computer data
base that allows the agency to track
how the states are doing in applying
automated technology to their pro­grams.
According to that survey, about 45
states currently have automated the
eligibility and benefit calculation proc­ess.
In more than half these states,
the automated system not only is the
sole method of calculating benefits,
but goes further and makes the finan­cial
eligibility determination for the
caseworker.
More than 40 states have auto­mated
case record files, and a similar
number have automated preparation
of some reports and notices such as
monthly reports and notices of case
actions. More than half the states
have integrated databases for food
stamps and AFDC.
Cross-checking information appli-cants
provide against other sources
of data has proven to be a very ef­fective
application for computer tech­nology.
About half the states have some
degree of automated "front-end" verifi­cation
systems in operation. Nine of
these do immediate on-line matches
with state unemployment compensa­tion
wage data. Most states also do
computerized verification after bene­fits
are authorized.
To follow up on cases involving
fraud or error, about 20 states have
statewide automated claims tracking
systems. Oregon's automated system
for tracking and collecting food stamp
claims, for instance, has helped the
state triple the number of claims es­tablished
each month.
New delivery
systems tried
Most states have automated some
part of their issuance systems as
well. In some areas, computers gen­erate
the authorization-to-participate
This plastic magnetic strip card is the key to
San Francisco's automated issuance system.
When it is run through a terminal, the com­puter
indicates the amount of the recipient's
food stamp allotment.
Food and Nutrition
(ATP) cards. In other instances, auto­mated
systems stuff coupons in en­velopes
sent to issuance sites or print
labels for mail issuance.
Ten states use on-line issuance
systems, primarily in urban areas.
San Francisco's Food Stamp Auto­mated
Issuance and Reporting Sys­tem
(FAIR) is typical of these sys­tems,
which eliminate the need for
ATP cards .
With on-line issuance , recipients
get a permanent plastic magnetic
strip card which they present at the
issuance office. The issuing agent
runs the card through a terminal, and
the computer indicates the amount of
the client's food stamp allotment. The
coupons are issued and the transac­tion
is entered into the computer . The
system dramatically cuts down on du­plicate
transactions .
To date , the ultimate automated
issuance system is being tested in
Reading , Pennsylvania, where the
food stamp coupon has been elimi­nated.
Recipients have plastic, mag­netic
strip cards which they use at
the grocery store. The clerk runs the
card through a telephone-size termi­nal
on the counter and the recipient
punches a secret four-digit number
into a hand-held keypad.
Use of the correct number author­izes
the transaction . The food pur­chase
is rung up on the cash regis­ter,
and a central computer debits the
recipients' electronic food stamp ac­count
and credits the grocer's bank
account. No food stamp coupons are
used at all.
Pennsylvania will run the Reading
project, known as Electronic Benefit
Transfer (EBT), through early 1988.
Preliminary results from the project
show that most retailers find the sys­tem
easier to deal with than the cou­pons.
Like the grocers, three-fourths
of the Reading food stamp recipients
prefer the electronic system. They
like not dealing with the coupon
books and not having to go to the
bank to exchange an A TP card for
coupons.
For USDA , the EBT system offers
potential for reducing fraud in the pro­gram
and for saving the cost of han­dling
and processing billions of food
stamp coupons each year. Final eval­uation
results from the first phase of
the project are expected later this
year.
More changes
in the future
Just how electronic will the future
Food Stamp Program be? It is too
soon to tell. But trends indicate that
in the near future more states will
move to on-line issuance systems
such as those in use in California
and Michigan.
More eligibility workers will be
equipped with automated work sta­tions
and will enter information pro­vided
by applicants directly into com­puters.
Caseload information will be
compiled in central data files, but
managed by mini- and microcom­puters
in various locations around the
state rather than by large central
mainframe units.
USDA will continue to encourage
automated systems integrating vari­ous
welfare programs, increased use
of front-end verification to prevent
fraud and errors before benefits are
issued, and better use of automation
in follow-up wage matching to help
focus investigative efforts on the most
serious cases of fraud and abuse .
This year, for the first time ever,
the legislation authorizing the Food
Stamp Program sets a specific
schedule for USDA and .~e states to
move ahead in automating program
operations.
The Farm Bill, passed in Decem­ber,
calls for USDA to set up and
work with a state advisory group on a
. model plan for automating data proc­essing
and computerizing information
systems. This plan must be devel­oped
and made available for com­ments
by October 1, 1986. USDA
has until February 1 , 1987 to con­sider
the comments and complete the
plan.
Using the model plan as a guide,
each state will then develop and sub­mit
an individual plan, which will be­come
part of the state's overall plan
of operation. States must submit their
plans by October 1 , 1987.
By April 1, 1988 USDA must sub­mit
to Congress an evaluation of the
states' plans. This report will include
an analysis of any additional steps
states must take to make their sys­tems
cost-effective and efficient.
States must begin putting their plans
into effect no later than October 1,
1988.
This means that within 2 years,
food stamp managers in every state
will have given considerable thought
to how they will automate their pro­grams.
Automating will become even
more of a priority than it already is.
Monitoring efforts
greatly improved
Just as FNS is providing enhanced
funding to states to improve their au­tomated
systems, the agency is in­vesting
in improvements at the fed­eral
level as well.
The oldest use of automation in the
Food Stamp Program nationally has
been to monitor the redemption activ­ity
of the retail food stores that take
part in the program.
The Redemption Certificate Auto­mation
Program (RCAP) located in
FNS' Minneapolis computer center
keeps track of important information
on the 230,000 retailers authorized to
accept food stamps. This information
includes basic identifying information,
estimated sales activity, investigative
history, and amount of coupon re­demptions.
RCAP also keeps track of
information on food stamp redemp­tions
as they are processed by
banks.
One quarterly report the system
generates identifies stores that re­deem
more than $1,000 each month
in food stamps and have twice the
6
average redemptions of a group of
stores of similar size. These stores
are checked out by the FNS field of­fices
to find out why they have
unusually high redemption levels. If
the field officers find unexplained ir­regularities,
the stores are referred for
investigation by FNS compliance
officers.
Several recent developments are
helping to streamline this process. To
enhance the computer screening by
the RCAP system, FNS is developing
an error-prone profil~a set of selec­tion
criteria to enable the computer to
better identify stores likely to violate
program rules. This profile will help
target investigative efforts.
In addition, the 72 FNS field offices
recently have been equipped with
microcomputers that allow them to
access the RCAP system. Field of­fices
can now enter information on
newly authorized stores directly into
the Minneapolis system, instead of
filling out and mailing a form with the
information.
Likewise, they can access historical
information about stores' redemption
patterns to help them in determining
which stores should be referred for
investigations.
FNS area compliance offices have
also recently been equipped with
microcomputers. Workers at the six
compliance offices can now electron­ically
enter information about stores
being investigated into a system
known as the Investigative Field Of­fice
Activities Reporting System, or
IFOARS, which is also housed in
Minneapolis.
When a compliance office gets a
case for investigation, the data is en­tered
into IFOARS. The system auto­matically
pulls background on the
store being investigated from the
RCAP system. The IFOARS com­puter
case record is updated continu­ously
as the investigation proceeds.
With the new on-line microcomputers,
this is being done faster and more ef­ficiently
than ever before.
FNS will soon be testing yet an­other
automated link in this system.
Starting this summer, two compliance
investigators will begin testing the use
of portable computer terminals to
keep track of their management infor­mation.
The size of a briefcase, the
computers will be equipped with a
keyboard and screen, and will be
able to transmit information to the
area compliance office microcomputer
over telephone lines.
The compliance investigators pose
as food stamp shoppers in stores
suspected of possible violations, such
as selling ineligible items, like ciga­rettes
or alcoholic beverages; buying
or selling food stamps; or giving un­authorized
amounts of cash as
change.
With the portable computers, inves­tigators
will be able to transmit daily
reports with complete information on
the inventory of food stamp coupons
used and cash change received in
their investigations.
Currently, the 50 investigators
spend about 1 0 percent of their time
keeping track of the more than
$300,000 in coupons they use each
year. Other types of reports-such as
details of cases worked on, miles
driven, and hours worked-will also
be easier with the portable units.
Other steps also
improve monitoring
Each year the 230,000 authorized
retailers accept about 2% billion cou­pons
of varying denominations from
food stamp participants in exchange
for eligible food items. The retailers
count and bundle the coupons by de­nomination
in packages of 1 00 and
submit them as part of their regular
bank deposit along with a redemption
certificate, a form supplied by FNS.
There are about 10,000 financial in­stitutions
that accept these deposits
and submit them with the redemption
certificates and a summary account­ing
document to one of 37 Federal
Reserve banks. About 700,000 forms
are used annually to make these
transfers.
The Federal Reserve banks count
the coupons, pass credits to the fi­nancial
institutions, check for counter­feit
coupons, and destroy the cou­pons.
They, in turn, charge the
United States Treasury for coupons
redeemed and destroyed, and submit
all accounting documents to FNS.
While the coupons are carefully
checked by the Federal Reserve
banks against the accounting docu­ments
submitted by the financial insti­tutions,
the amount of the redemption
certificates differs from the coupons
because of restrictions on how cou­pons
must be bundled for submis­sion.
FNS has improved the accountabil­ity
of this system through a bank
monitoring project developed in 1982
and fully implemented in April 1985.
The project changed the redemption
Food and Nutrition
certificate to an easier-to-complete
form which could be read by an opti­cal
scanner at the Minneapolis com­puter
center. It also changed and im­proved
the flow of paperwork to FNS.
The changes require banks to be
stricter about checking the redemp­tion
certificates supplied by retailers.
This has helped to some extent, says
Ray Pugh, deputy administrator for fi­nancial
management at FNS.
He points out that in fiscal year
1981 banks redeemed $200 million in
food stamp coupons that could not be
identified with specific retailers. Cur­rently,
the gap has dropped to about
$40 million. "However," he says, "the
system still falls short of being a full­blown
accounting system for food
stamp redemptions."
To counter that problem, FNS has
pulled together a task force made up
of seven major banks, the American
Bankers Association, the U.S. League
of Savings Institutions, the Federal
Reserve System, and agency repre­sentatives.
The task force's goal is to
come up with an automated system
that would effectively keep track of
redemption data and streamline cur­rent
procedures.
"We are examining approaches that
would reduce paper flow, give us an
accurate accounting for redemption
activity by retailers, cut down the staff
workload at the Minneapolis computer
center, and apply the technology that
is currently available to the govern­ment
and banking industry," says
Pugh.
The task force has carefully docu­mented
the redemption process and
has considered a number of alterna­tives
for an improved system. The
system will be pilot tested and evalu­ated
before being applied on a broad
scale.
"While early in the process, the
idea has potential for some exciting
things," says Pugh. "It's an interim
step that fits in between where we
are now and a paperless, EBT-Iike
system down the road. It represents
something you can do right now to
provide a dramatic improvement in
food stamp redemption account­ability."
Automation is
at the forefront
With the agency looking into more
sophisticated electronic bank moni­toring
at the same time it builds an
automated network for other kinds of
program information, the outlines of
Joe Leo's vision of a fully automated
electronic flow of information begin to
take shape.
"When you look at what our part­ners
in the states are doing in auto-
Information on food stamp cases
is easily stored and retrieved at
this Illinois public aid office in
Chicago.
mating, then at what FNS is doing,
you can see that automation is
clearly at the forefront of our future
management of this program," Leo
says.
Is it worth the investment in capital
to set up an electronic system to run
the Food Stamp Program? "I believe
unequivocally that automation can re­turn
in service and in productivity
more than $1.50 to $2.00 for every
$1.00 invested," Leo answers.
Automation will not necessarily re­place
people, he says. It will help
them do their jobs better-"working
smarter, not harder," as Leo puts it.
"We are always going to need peo­ple
to make sense out of all this
data, to make decisions, to do the in­terpretation
and analysis. Basically,
automation frees the worker from
mundane bean counting. It extends
human capability by providing an
electronic tool.
"The agency's mission is to deliver
food assistance in an efficient and ef­fective
way," Leo says. "The bottom
line is that today you really can't do
that without automation." ...
article by Jane Mattern Vachon
photos by Marian Wig, Tino Serrano,
and Mary Jane Getlinger
New York City
Pleased with
New Payment
Sy~tem
Last year, officials of New York
City's Department of Income Mainte­nance
issued new photo identification
cards to every public assistance and
food stamp recipient in New York
City. It was the last step in switching
from paper documents and manual
operations to one of the nation's most
automated payment systems, known
as Electronic Payment File Transfer
(EPFT) .
Under the new system, magneti­cally
encoded photo ID cards give
bank tellers immediate access to a
master file of computerized records
that show the amount of food stamps
. 8
due each client. This eliminates the
need for authorization-to-participate
(ATP) cards, which clients previously
used to obtain their food stamps.
"We disburse public assistance
payments and food stamp coupons to
more than 500,000 households," says
AI Giove, manager of the EPFT sys­tem.
"It took years of planning and
testing to design a system that would
meet our needs. The result is a sav­ings
of $9 million a year in costs and
losses and better service for our
clients."
Helped clients
with the change
Attention to the human factor is a
key aspect of the city's achievement.
In automating the system, officials
looked for an efficient way to prepare
clients to understand and deal with it.
The method chosen was to open,
staff and equip five temporary "con­version"
centers in Brooklyn, the
Bronx, Queens, and Manhattan.
By last December, the last of the
temporary centers had completed its
task. A single permanent site now
handles all new cards and replace­ments.
"It was no more difficult than throw­ing
a party for 500,000 guests," jokes
Frank Cascio, who directed the con­version
to high-tech finance for the
city's welfare clients.
On a blustery day last November,
Cascio watched a file of clients, bun­dled
in overcoats, step up to the win­dow
at the Brooklyn conversion cen­ter
where they received training and
new identification cards. Cascio vis­ited
the centers frequently to make
sure clients were moving rapidly
through the process.
With conversion nearly completed,
the lines at the reception windows
were short. At each window, a recep­tionist
verified appointments and
checked the status of the client's
case on an EPFT terminal.
Those approved for processing
were given a routing slip to guide
them through each step, pamphlets in
Spanish and English describing
EPFT, and a calendar of dates on
which benefits could be picked up. As
clerks encoded and laminated their
photo ID's and entered data into the
EPFT system, clients watched a
15-minute videotape describing elec­tronic
payments.
Because an estimated 35 to 40
percent of the clients are Spanish­speaking,
the tape was offered in
Spanish as well as English. Entitled
"What EPFT Can Do For You," it ex­plained
how the new system prevents
benefits from being delayed, stolen,
or lost in the mail.
It also showed how to present the
card for payment at participating
banks and check-cashing sites and
explained what to do in case the
cards were lost or stolen.
Transition made
without problems
To convert to the new system, the
Department of Income Maintenance
assigned clients to centers according
to zip code areas. Thus, the change­over
took place in orderly stages
rather than through simultaneous ac­tion
citywide. As staff in the neighbor­hood
offices observed the new sys­tem
in operation, they were eager to
come on board.
When a conversion center was
ready, the Department sent out letters
asking all clients in designated zip
code areas to report to their assigned
site. Each was given a specific date
and time, and every effort was made
to ensure that everyone came in.
Those who did not show were per­sonally
contacted. Files of elderly and
disabled persons were flagged so
they would continue to receive bene­fits
until a special team could work
with them at home.
Food and Nutrition
In addition to Spanish-language
materials, training sessions were pro­vided
in other languages such as
Vietnamese, Laotian, and Cambodian.
In one case, volunteers contacted the
center and arranged to act as inter­preters
for a group of clients from
Chinatown.
"We staffed and equipped the cen­ters
to handle about 600 clients a
day," says Cascio. "Before they
opened, I inspected each site and
made recommendations to ensure
that client flow progressed logically
from one step of the process to the
next.
"I thought something would have to
go wrong, but I was a pessimist," he
says. "The plan worked beautifully,
and we made the change without a
problem."
Process is fast
and convenient
There are currently 350 banks and
check cashers throughout the city au­thorized
to issue food stamps to cli­ents
presenting photo ID's. The proc­ess
is fast and simple for tellers and
food stamp recipients alike.
The teller first checks to see that
the photo matches, then inserts the
card into a terminal. In less than 15
seconds, the machine prints out a
voucher showing the client's food
stamp entitlement and the next date
to report for benefits.
The client signs the voucher as re­ceipt
for payment. The teller com­pares
the client's signature to that on
the card, and pays the amount due .
The computer automatically updates
a master file to reflect the payment,
making it impossible to get the same
benefit at any other outlet.
Each night, the Department of In­come
Maintenance receives a tape of
transactions. "It's a clean and neat
system," says AI Giove.
With clients and issuance sites suc­cessfully
incorporated into the new
system, city food stamp managers
are beginning to reap the benefits of
a long planning process.
According to Giove, automation
was recognized very early as the way
to achieve a more secure, reliable,
and economical public assistance
program. He credits leadership in this
effort to the vision and support of
deputy administrator Martin Burdick,
executive deputy administrator Herb
Rosenzweig, and former assistant
deputy administrator Robin Swank.
With their support, Giove's team
April1986
worked with contractors to define the
Department's needs and to develop
an appropriate management system.
From November 1981 to November
1983, the current system was tested
in a small area of upper West Side
Manhattan.
The results of the pilot project were
carefully analyzed. A survey showed
that 90 percent of the clients who
participated preferred the electronic
system to the paper one it replaced.
They were pleased to get their bene­fits
on time and not have to worry
about having them lost or stolen in
the mail.
Improvements seen
in several areas
By studying the operation and re­sults
of this initial application, Depart­ment
officials continued to improve
the system. For instance, when the
At a Brooklyn conversion
center, food stamp re­cipients
watch a videotape
on electronic payments.
Below: Frank Cascio
watches a staff member
encode a photo card.
project expanded citywide, the larger
volume of transactions made it cost­effective
to switch from a dial-up
mode of access to the master file to
the faster, leased direct line.
The system was also refined to
make it more reliable. A back-up
computer was added to take over if
the main system fails. The Depart­ment
also maintains its capability for
printing checks and ATP 's.
With the system in place , the De­partment
has been able to correct the
formidable problems incurred under a
paper system. Giove cites the follow­ing
three main areas of improvement: ..
Administrative expense. Before
automating, the Department had to
pay postage on the 600,000 food
9
stamp ATP's and 1 million public as­sistance
checks it mailed out. More­over,
printing and storing .tJle docu­ments
was costly, and additional
costs were involved in moving them
by armored cars from the warehouse
to the data processing center to the
post office.
Mail los~ and delays. Each month
15,000 people, including 7,000 food
stamp recipients, would complain of
not receiving their benefits. A com­plex
system was necessary to guard
against fraud before benefits could be
reissued.
Among other things, this involved
setting an 8-day limit on the time in
which an ATP could be cashed. The
anti-fraud measures were costly to
the Department, and the delays in re­placing
benefits created hardships for
clients. Because there is no A TP to
be lost or delayed under EPFT, food
stamps may be collected until the
end of the month in which they are
issued, which is far more convenient
for clients.
All clients are given a hotline num­ber
to report the loss or theft of their
ID card. This immediately prevents
any further use of the card. Thus, the
EPFT system virtually solves the
costly problem of duplicate issuances
and theft.
Accountability. Under the old sys­tem,
it took 1 00 people to manually
reconcile food stamp benefits issued
and paid and to submit a monthly re­port
to Washington. Now, payments
are recorded and reconciled immedi­ately.
Staff freed from manual opera­tions
are being reassigned to provide
better and more rapid service to
clients.
That, Giove says, is one of the as­pects
he likes best about the new
system. "It's always a challenge to
improve management and save
money," he says, "but it is also grati­fying
to see these same actions
translated into better service to peo­ple
in need."
For more information, contact:
AI Giove, Manager
Electronic Payment File
Transfer System
Department of Income Maintenance
250 Church Street
New York, New York 10013
Telephone: (212) 553-6253
article and photos
by Wini Scheffler
10
Model System
For Smaller
Counties Tested
In Minnesota
"User-friendly" is what food stamp
staff in Dakota County, Minnesota,
are calling their new automated sys­tem.
The system, developed jointly by
federal, state, and local staff, is espe­cially
designed to handle food stamp
certification and issuance transactions
in small to medium-sized counties.
"It's a great system," says Pam
Nolan, computer consultant for the
Dakota County Economic Assistance
Division. "It does a lot for both work­ers
and managers, and it improves
accountability."
Planning began
3 years ago
Planning for the system began in
1982 when the Food and Nutrition
Service's Washington staff asked the
agency's Midwest regional office
(MWRO) to develop and test the pos-sibility
of implementing an automated
food stamp system on a micro­computer.
"We chose Minnesota," says Dave
Witt, assistant director of family nutri­tion
programs for MWRO, "because
they do not have a statewide auto­mated
system for certification and is­suance
of food stamps. The Minne­sota
state agency agreed with the
idea and chose the Dakota County
Economic Assistance Division in West
St. Paul as the test site."
Fred Martinowsky, computer spe­cialist
with FNS' Information Re­sources
Management Division in
Washington, was the project leader. It
was his job to search for suitable
softwar~that is to find a database
management system that would oper­ate
on a microcomputer and that
could do multiple tasks using multiple
stations.
"This was the first time anyone had
tried using microcomputers for the
Food Stamp Program," says Martin­owsky.
"A number of automated sys­tems
are being used for food stamp
certification and issuance, but these
generally are in areas with large
caseloads or are statewide
operations.
the country to use microcomputers for the · · · · .·.·.·.·.·.::·:·:·
Food Stamp Program.
Food and Nutrition
..
"There are a number of states that
are county-oriented and could use
smaller, less expensive systems.
Microcomputers cost about 1 /20 the
amount needed for a mainframe
system."
It took Martinowsky 6 months to re­search
and select a database man­agement
system. He had to study
market surveys, make telephone
calls, talk to salesmen and visit some
existing mainframe systems. He
chose "OPTIMUM" because it would
allow several operators to do different
tasks at the same time.
Implemented in
several stages
In June of 1983, Jeff Tripodi, com­puter
programmer for MWRO, volun­teered
to work on the overall system
design and the detailed programming.
Having worked in the Food Stamp
Program for 3 years, he had both the
skills and the knowledge of program
regulations to generate the required
output documents.
Computer consultant Pam Nolan, a
former Dakota County employee, was
instrumental in developing the sys­tem.
She and Tripodi decided what
information would be put in the com­puter,
how the information would be
manipulated, and what reports would
be generated. They also wrote the
April1986
user manual.
When the county decided to imple­ment
the system, Nolan prepared
small group training sessions for Da­kota
County staff to give an overview
of the system and provide information
on the input and output documents.
She plans to conduct additional train­ing
sessions as tlle need arises.
Martinowsky and Tripodi did the
detailed programming, after first mas­tering
the "OPTIMUM" language. The
computer system called for approxi­mately
1 00 program modules.
"Writing the modules was a long,
detailed process that involved taking
a goal or objective and breaking it
down into minute steps to reach the
end result," Tripodi explains.
Speeds processing
and reporting
The Dakota County system is de­signed
to handle most major food
stamp certification and issuance
transactions for a maximum of 2,500
cases. As Tripodi explains, the sys­tem
helps the food stamp staff with
almost every step of determining eli­gibility,
calculating benefits, and keep­ing
track of household participation in
the program.
"In the area of certification," he
says, "the new system can distinguish
among new applications, reapplica-
Many of the tasks pre­viously
done by hand­like
preparing expiration
notices-are now done
with the new system .
tions, recertifications, desk reviews,
and corrections.
"For households that are eligible,
the system can figure out the proper
food stamp allotment, create a house­hold
record for storage and retrieval
on the automated database, and is­sue
a notice of decision.
"It can also generate listings au­thorizing
the proper issuance of food
stamps on both a daily and monthly
basis, store all information previously
maintained on Household Issuance
Record (HIR) cards, and meet state
and federal reporting requirements.
"Finally, it can generate statistical
reports and notices based on infor­mation
stored on the database. Its
potential in this area is considerable."
Special form
used for data
In processing applications or updat­ing
records, food stamp staff use
what is called a "turn-around docu­ment."
Thi~ two-part form is divided
into five major sections: household,
income, shelter, allotment, and
household members. Areas involving
allotment calculations are highlighted.
"During either an interview or a
desk review," says Nolan, ''the finan­cial
worker ensures that the food
stamp application, the household re­port
form or the change report form
11
are complete and that all verification
requirements have been met.
"The worker transfers information
from the food stamp application to
the food stamp case! information turn­around
document. In the instance of
an update, the financial worker uses
the monthly report form to revise a
turn-around that already exists for
that case."
The worker keeps the bottom por­tion
of the turn-around document and
sends the top portion to the data en­try
operator, who keys the information
into the terminal. This information ei­ther
establishes a new household
record or updates an existing record.
The system generates a new turn­around
document and a notice of de-
Above: Financial worker Ardis
interviews clients in West St. Paul.
Below: MWRO's Jeff Tripodi answers a
question from the Minnesota staff.
12
cision, which become part of the case
file. Another copy of the notice of de­cision
goes to the client, with all
standard information pertaining to cli­ents'
rights and responsibilities
printed on the reverse side.
Issuance log
produced daily
At the end of the day, the system
produces a mail issuance log, which
lists the household's name, address,
benefit amount, and coupon book de­nomination.
This goes to the account­ing
department, which will use it the
following day to manually issue food
stamps.
After the accounting staff issue the
coupons, they key the date, the
amount, and the category of issuance
(monthly, prorated, supplemental, re­stored,
replacement, or retroactive
benefit) into the terminal. This up­dates
the household record.
The system is designed to accom­modate
expedited payments to
households that qualify for this spe­cial
service because of severe need.
"In these cases," says Nolan, "the
system will print a notice of decision
while the recipient waits. The recipi­ent
can take his notice of decision to
the accounting department and pick
up his first food stamps immediately."
Speed and accuracy are two big
pluses for the new system, according
to county managers. "Our cases are
consistent and accurate," says Judy
Bergevin, a Dakota County office
services supervisor, "because all the
information is provided in a standard
format, and the calculations are done
by computer."
"It will be just wonderful when it is
in full operation," says financial as­sistance
supervisor Betty Bruber.
"Definitely, it will be a timesaver.
"Although it may take longer to
process first-time cases, our case
documentation will be much more
complete and desk reviews or up­dates
will require less than half the
time it takes with the manual system.
Our computer forms are designed to
get the right answers, so our level of
errors is reduced."
Final tests are
nearly complete
The system is now in the second
stage of what's called "parallel test­ing."
In the first stage, 100 cases
were loaded and processed both
manually and by computer. Many t
problems were worked out. In the
second stage, 500 cases are being l
processed both manually and by
computer. Dakota County staff expect
their automated system to be com-pletely
in place by the end of April.
For more information on the Dakota
County system, contact:
Dustin Van Vleet
Regional Director,
Family Nutrition Programs
Food and Nutrition Service
50 E. Washington
Chicago, Illinois 60602
Telephone: (312) 353-6272
article by Mary Jane Gettinger
photos by Mary Jane Gettinger
and Mary Jo Stauner
Food and Nutrition
1
Wyoming WIC
Staff Pioneer
New Approach
Although Wyoming was the fiftieth
state to join the WIC program, it has
become a pioneer in computerizing
program operations. Working closely
with local staff, state managers have
developed the first on-line computer
data bank system specifically for
WIC needs.
WIG-officially known as the Spe­cial
Supplemental Food Program for
Women, Infants, and Children-is op­erated
by state and local health
agencies in cooperation with USDA's
Food and Nutrition Service (FNS).
It serves low-income pregnant and
breastfeeding women, infants, and
children up to age 5 who are deter­mined
to be at risk because of
nutrition-related health problems and
inadequate diet. Participants receive
nutrition education along with spe­cially
prescribed food packages.
Wyoming has served more than
33,000 mothers and children since
the program began there. "That's very
good in a state with less than half a
million people," says Wyoming's WIC
director Terry Williams.
System's benefits
already evident
Williams-under whose guidance
the new computer system was devel­oped-
sees multiple benefits already
accruing from the system, including
an estimated $20,000 annual savings
in operating costs. Within a 3-year
period, the system will pay for itself.
It also serves participants more effi­ciently
and has added to the skills of
the professional and paraprofessional
staff.
"We're always looking for ways to
increase efficiency and stretch our
dollars," Williams says. "We decided
computerizing offered the most poten­tial
to help us maximize our pro­gram."
Wyoming's first task was determin­ing
cost-effectiveness. There are WIC
clinics all over the state-in public
health departments, mobile trailers,
and even a church basement. The
largest clinic is open 5 days a week,
but staff members travel to smaller
clinics at some sites just once or
twice a month.
April1986
The new portable computers cut down on
waiting time for mothers and children.
"Our nutritionist in the Big Horn
Basin, for example," Williams says,
"runs about four clinics a week at a
minimum of three different locations."
The old way of doing things was
cumbersome and time-consuming. Lo­cal
staff used various multi-part forms
to record data on each participant
and each visit. These forms had to
be mailed to the state office, where
the data then had to be keypunched,
put on a disk, and taken to the bank
for entry into its mainframe computer.
The bank prepared the vouchers
that participants use to purchase WIC
foods at authorized grocery stores.
These were done in batches and sent
to the state office, which passed
them on to the local agencies for dis­tribution
to participants.
Turn-around time was as long as
2 months. At least 15 percent of the
vouchers had to be voided because
participants had moved or their food
prescriptions had changed. About 5
to 8 percent of the records had form
or keypunch errors, causing more
delays.
Portable units
were recommended
Interested in streamlining the proc­ess,
the state staff consulted their
data processing bank, American Na­tional
Bank in Cheyenne, which rec­ommended
using portable computers.
With portable computers, the local
staff would be able not only to speed
certification and simplify record­keeping,
but also issue vouchers on
the spot.
Because of the way Wyoming's
WIC program is set up, the portable
units had to meet several criteria.
They had to be light, so nurses and
nutritionists could carry them. They
had to be durable, since they would
be loaded into the back seat of a car
and taken from clinic to clinic several
times a week, and they had tci be
IBM-compatible to interface with
Wyoming's existing equipment.
The state selected COMPAQ port­able
units, which weigh only 33
pounds. Most of the state's 13 WIC
projects and 32 clinics sites use the
. standard COMPAQ portable, but proj­ects
in Cheyenne, Casper, and Fre­mont
County/Riverton/Lander use
COMPAQ PLUS units because of
their need for expanded storage
capacity.
Costs "!l~re less
than estimated
The hardware and software for
Wyoming's system cost less than
$100,000. The system came in at
less than the estimated cost, thanks
to a drop in the cost of microcom­puter
equipment over the period of
the project.
13
Ten standard COMPAQ portables,
three COMPAQ PLUS. units, and an­other
unit at the contract bank cost
$55,124. This compares well with the
original 3-year, lease-to-buy estimate
of $55,044 for only 11 projects. State
office equipment was projected at
$14,850, but cost only $9,160. Pro­gramming-
including the time of a
full-time contract programmer-added
another $18,115.
Installation costs were also low.
The computers are secured in spe­cially
designed desk cabinets, con­structed
of heavy wood with two
locks and storage for vouchers and
computer paper. The state's carpen­ter
built the first one from a staff de­sign,
and local agencies have con­tracted
for more at $250 each.
After each workday, computer
equipment is locked into the cabinet,
but it remains "live" so data can be
automatically forwarded to or received
from Cheyenne.
Computers help
in many ways
The computers help the local staff
with many tasks formerly done by
hand. In addition to using the units to
issue vouchers and certify and recer­tify
participants, local agencies also
use the units to: correct participants'
records; select food package pre­scriptions;
enter information directly
into the state's master file; transfer in­formation
from the master file; and
print out data when written materials
are needed.
Daily reports-including numbers of
individuals certified and recertified,
changes, and vouchers issued-help
the state staff measure work load,
calculate obligations, and monitor lo­cal
agencies.
The new system also improves effi­ciency
by reducing the amount of
time participants spend in the clinics
and by providing tighter control meas­ures.
The new automated voucher is­suance
system is a big time saver­vendor-
specific vouchers can be pre­pared
and printed at any time. Termi­nals
can also be programmed to pre­pare
postcards informing participants
of their status.
A new programming phase will in­clude
software to issue late voucher
pick-up notices, recertification notices,
and right-to-fair-hearing letters. Even­tually,
it can also be used for word
processing, diet analysis, and other
office uses.
Portables units have a built-in
14
Hayes modem and use Hayes soft­ware
for communication. The
COMPAQ is linked to a Burroughs
2930 mainframe computer at the
bank and to the State's IBM PC-XT,
using a software package called
Masterlink. Each local agency project
area has its own Okidata printer for
on-site voucher issuance .
Clients and
staff benefit
When floods in Cheyenne put their
COMPAQ PLUS unit down for a day,
the manual issuance of checks was a
reminder of "the bad old days" for
Wyoming 's WIC director Terry Williams
(above) is pleased with his state's new
computer equipment. The portable units
are light and easy for staff to use.
Lynn Van Raden, Laramie County nu­tritionist
in charge of that clinic. She
said they'd never be able to serve
their present workload on an ongoing
basis without computerization.
In terms of dollars and cents,
Wyoming has reduced its banking
costs already. Prior to adoption of the
new system, bank charges for data ·
support and voucher handling were
$85,000 per year for approximately
7,400 participants-an average cost
of 96 cents per participant per month.
This year's contract with American
National calls for an expenditure of
$65,000, representing roughly 73
Food and Nutrition
•
Here, registered nurse Debbie Barnes
(left) and secretary Rose Maez (right and
above) issue WIC vouchers to participants
at the Cheyenne clinic.
cents for participant per month.
"We're providing better service to
our participants," says Williams.
"There are fewer wrong checks being
provided."
An added advantage is enhanced
job skills for professional and para­professional
staff. Since WIC is the
state's first program in the public
health sector to be computerized,
county staff feel good about acquiring
related job skills. They now have
more flexibility for future career devel­opment
and upward mobility.
Formerly, nurses and nutritionists
had to do a tremendous amount of
April1986
paperwork. With recordkeeping and
check preparation now automated,
they're free of those chores.
"This has allowed us to reem­phasize
why we hired them," says
Williams . "We figure it gives them an
additional 5 minutes per participant
for counseling, education, nutritional
assessment, and actual eye contact."
New staffing
patterns tried
Wyoming is now experimenting with
different staffing patterns within the
program. Traditionally, the clinic
teamed a nutritionist, a nurse, and a
secretary to work with participants.
Now there are two models at work .
In the first, the nutritionist provides
full service to participants with secre­tarial
support only 1 day per week to
process data from the microcomputer
and generate print-outs. This pattern
works well with sparse populations
since the nutritionist can cover sev­eral
communities per week.
In the second model, which applies
to larger communities and caseloads,
a nurse and nutritionist work together,
with 1 day for the secretary to proc­ess
data gathered the other 4 days.
Wyoming is especially proud of
having computerized its WIC program
within the available federal grants. No
special money was made available
for the project. The bank trained state
office staff, and state people trained
field staff.
"Even though none of our people
had computer expertise," Williams
says, "they have been trained to fully
use the COMPAQ for our program
needs in about 12 hours."
He says that any local agency con­sidering
such a system is not looking
at a large economic investment. A
smaller agency, such as an Indian
agency, should be able to implement
something similar for a lot less. And
a new staff person-at the end of
2 days' training-can go out and
operate a clinic.
Changes can
still be made
Should Wyoming ever decide to go
to a totally in-house system or use
another contractor or bank, the
software is adaptable. But Wyoming
staff are pretty happy with their new
system now.
"Computers have enabled us to
make our operation virtually paper­less,
freeing up our professional staff
for more meaningful work," Williams
says.
After all, why bury people in paper?
For more information, contact:
Joseph T. Williams
Wyoming WIC Program Director
Hathaway Building
Cheyenne, WyQilling 82002
Telephone: (307) 770-7494
article and photos
by Joanne Widner
15
Workshops
Help School
Lunch
Managers in
Pennsylvania
Jack Koser brags about the fact he
spends 90 percent of his workday in
school cafeterias. What else, you
might ask, would a school food serv­ice
director be doing?
"Paperwork," says Koser. "There's
just so much recordkeeping in this
business that it can keep you from
where you really should be-in the
lunchroom finding out what does and
doesn't work with the kids."
The way out of the paperwork di­lemma,
he says, requires neither a
staff of thousands nor Merlin the Ma­gician.
It takes a little knowledge of
computers and a willingness to try
new things.
Koser, who is school food service
director for the Lower Merion School
School food service director Jack Koser
(right) and other workshop instructors
made sure participants had plenty of time
to work with the computer terminals.
District in Pennsylvania, became fas­cinated
by computers and their appli­cation
in the food service industry
when he worked at the University of
Pennsylvania.
Software was available at the Ivy
League school that could instantly
precast banquets, automatically de­velop
recipe measurements for meals
for from 5 to 5,000 people, and accu ­rately
keep inventory of every food
service item from paper products to
condiments.
When he left Penn for a career in
school food service, Koser was deter­mined
to have as much computer so­phistication
as he could working
for him.
"With the knowledge I brought with
me, I could see that school food
service, as a profession, was years
behind in the use of computers," the
district director says. "And I felt we all
needed to get more involved ."
Workshops offer
chance to help
The chance to share this technical
knowledge with his peers came last
year when he was asked to assist
with a series of workshops on com-puters
sponsored by USDA and the
Pennsylvania Department of Ed­ucation.
"The state wanted to get more
schools involved in computers," Koser
says. "It was a great opportunity not
only for me but for all who were able
to take advantage of the courses."
According to teachers and students
alike, the workshops were an unquali­fied
success. The sessions were both
basic in design and relative to the
needs of the participants. Small
classes allowed for hands-on training,
and software included programs for
menu management, financial state­ments,
and inventory control.
The combination maintained inter­est
not only through the course, but
also when students returned to their
schools.
Betty Bass, school food service di­rector
for the Lackawanna Trail
School District in the northeastern
part of the state, says she had little
computer training before taking the
course.
"Once we got our hands on the
computer and saw it wouldn't bite,"
she says, "I think the whole class
found it quite easy to learn." Since
the training, Bass has been able to
work with her school district in devel­oping
an accounts payable/ receivable
..
system on the district's main com­puter.
"With the disks from the course, I'll
be able to do a lot more when I get
my own terminal," she says. "And
with the time I save, I'll be able to
get to my five buildings more often."
Other managers
also see benefits
Irene Metzger, food service director
at the Loyalsock Township School
District in Williamsport, says while
some of the course programs were
inappropriate for her small district,
she found the training to be a great
asset.
"It really hit the target," she says.
"I'd recommend it for anyone in
school food service."
After taking the course, the
Williamsport director was able to get
an inventory program for government
commodities written for her district. "I
went to the computer teacher about
putting together a program, but he
couldn't work in any free time,"
Metzger says. "So he made it a stu­dent
assignment." The program is
now in place and saves her 1 day's
manual work a month.
One director who bought the com­puter
concept lock, stock, and barrel
was Ed Gordon, head of food service
at the Bensalem Township School
District in suburban Philadelphia.
"I'm sold," he says. "I've got a PC
(personal computer) here in my of­fice.
And, I've bought an entire food
service software package along with
16 hours of training time."
Gradually, Gordon says, he is
bringing all facets of his operation
into the electronic age. And the effort
is paying dividends.
"Last summer, it took me 4 weeks
to build an inventory file of about 800
items," he says. "Before the school
year is half over, I'll easily make that
time back."
Another computer time saver,
Gordon has found, is in the area of
the daily accounting of meals and
money and periodic tabulations. "I
used to have a journal that required
writing in numbers each day for each
school," he says. "With the computer,
it's much quicker and cleaner, and
you don't have to worry about errors
in the totals."
Gordon credits the workshops with
fueling his interest in computer tech­nology.
"I think what did it was the
fact that the course dealt specifically
with areas we could relate to," he
says. "The people who put the work­shops
together came up with a good
concept."
Workshops were
carefully planned
Penn State University's College of
Human Development was awarded
the contract for the three 2-day ses­sions,
entitled "Using Computers to
Improve School Food Service Man­agement."
The purpose of the workshops, ac­cording
to Carolyn Lambert, assistant
professor in Penn State's Food Sys­tems
Administration, was to acquaint
school food service personnel and
business officials with the computer
and its application in their workplace.
She says most managers in busi­ness
administration are in need of
computer knowledge. School food
service is a good example of a pro­fession
that must use, reuse, and
store large quantities of information.
'The computer would appear to be
such a logical purchase that every
school food service department would
have one," the professor says. But
many school districts do not use elec­tronic
technology in school food
service.
"In some cases, there is a reluc­tance
to try new systems," she ex­plains.
"And there are many times
when people are willing but the train­ing
is either too technical or inap­propriate."
The premise of the Penn State
workshops was that participants had
little or no knowledge of computers or
their application to the school lunch
program.
Sessions held in
three locations
Sessions were held in three loca­tions-
eastern, western, and central
sections of the state. They were lim­ited
to 50 people per session so that
everyone could have enough per­sonal
attention from instructors as
well as time working with the
computer.
"We had less lecture time and
more participation with the terminal,"
Koser says. "People quickly became
more at ease and less apprehensive."
Another key ingredient to the suc­cess
of the workshops was the in­structional
software that consisted of
programs specific to food service
operations-inventory, daily cost
sheets, and a recipe file. These pro­grams
were given to participants in
diskettes ready to use.
Koser says he hopes the work­shops
and the programs will serve as
a base that will eventually lead to
such things as inventories, cost anal­yses,
financial data, recipes and nutri­ent
evaluations being generated in­stantly
by computers.
"The workshops got the awareness
to 150 people," he says. "It's a start."
For more information, contact:
John Pastuszek, State Director
Child Nutrition Programs
Division of Fiscal Administration
DeJ""artment of Education
P.O. Box 911
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17126-0333
Telephone: (717) 783-6535
article and photos
by Joe Dunphy
School Lunch
in Gainesville:
From Cash Box
to Computer
For many people in Gainesville,
Florida, GATORS means only one
thing-the University of Florida sports
teams. But for school lunch manag­ers,
GATORS means Gainesville Au­tomated
Terminal Online Resource
System, a state-of-the-art computer
project that spells relief from paper­work
while providing improved ac­countability
for the school lunch
program.
In 1981 , the Alachua County school
board decided to make better and
more extensive use of computers
throughout the 30-school district.
County food service director, Branna
Godwin, who has recently retired,
welcomed the chance to modernize
school lunch operations.
"In looking at our business sys­tems,"
says Godwin, "we realized
they were old fashioned and unre­liable."
All monies for the school
breakfast and lunch programs were
collected in tin cash boxes and partic­ipation
counts were tallied as hash
marks on a form.
"We had a totally manual system.
We knew we needed a change be­cause
we were handling more money
than many companies in the area.
We were running a $5 million busi­ness
out of tin boxes."
Special terminals
installed in schools
The first area Godwin addressed
was cash collection and accountability
for meals served. "Accurate meal
counts are important," she says, "be­cause
they determine federal reim­bursements."
After reviewing a study
on how to best use available com­puter
technology, she decided to in­stall
point-of-sale cash register termi­nals
in each of the 30 schools.
As Godwin explains, the terminals
are placed at the end of the food line
like ordinary cash registers. As chil­dren
move through the line , the cash­ier
at the terminal keys in information
on the sale-for example, whether
the meal is served free, at reduced­price,
or at full price to students. In­formation
on a Ia carte sales and
18
meals served to adults is also
keyed in.
Each terminal has a modem at­tached,
which allows the terminal to
communicate through a separate, di­rect
phone line to a host mainframe
computer located at the school board
office. The food service staff and
school board accountants view data
from the schools on terminals that
are linked to the mainframe .
Many chain restaurants use this
same type of setup since it provides
accurate accounting at the point of
sale with appropriate checks and bal­ances
for cash collection.
A computer program, developed as
a part of GATORS, transfers data
from the schools' terminals to the
mainframe host computer. The main­frame
computer "polls" each school
terminal at night through a telecom­munications
software program that re­trieves
data on school lunch activities
that day.
System is fast
and accurate
Electronic polling improves accu­racy
over manual keypunching since
data is punched in only once at the
point of sale . And it is faster-it
would take one person almost 8
hours to keypunch one day's data
that is now transmitted from all
schools in less than an hour over
phone lines.
Five years ago, Alachua
County schools were using tin
cash boxes, like this one, to
collect school lunch monies.
Thanks to Bronna Godwin, all
30 schools now have sophisti­cated
computerized cash
registers.
If there is a telephone transmission
problem with a school, data can be
keypunched into the mainframe com­puter.
While this takes longer than
telephone transmission , it is still much
faster than the old manual system.
Persuading lunch managers to
change to a new computerized cash
collection system wasn't easy. "I had
managers break out in hives during
computer training because they were
used to their tin boxes and forms,"
laughs Godwin.
In the first year , there was a fear of
dealing with technology. "The manag­ers
were initially worried about the in-
stant feedback we had on their
school lunch data the next morning,"
says Godwin. But due to the proper
atmosphere and support, the
GATORS system has been accepted
well. "Now you can 't find anyone who
would even think about going back to
the old system ," Godwin says.
One of the benefits of GATORS is
that managers now have more time
for food and employee supervision
rather than duplication of clerical
work. In Gainesville , school lunch
managers can save up to 6 hours a
week of their time and almost 3
hours of their employees' time a
week.
At one school, 30 forms a week
have been eliminated thanks to auto­mation.
USDA's Office of Inspector
General audited GATORS and found
that it was effective in gathering and
summarizing school lunch data.
"The terminals also help speed stu­dents
through the lunch lines since
item costs are programmed right in,"
says Godwin .
Even though the GATORS com­puter
network is extremely sophisti­cated,
the key to its success is the
simplicity, accountability and flexibility
built in. Most schools use only one
terminal. "We put an additional termi­nal
in a school only if it is needed
due to an additional food line,"
Godwin explains.
Lunch data from the secondary ter­minal
at a school is punched into the
primary register at the end of the
lunch period. All data is stored in the
primary register until the host com­puter
polls it that night.
Reports help
managers plan
As a part of GATORS , manage­ment
reports that include information
on participation, food costs, and labor
costs are provided to each school
manager. This enables school lunch
managers to compare their costs with
other schools' costs and to evaluate
ways to better manage their
programs .
"We want each school food man­ager
to see how much labor and food
cost is involved with the meal. With
this information, we're challenged to
see if we can do it for less," says
Godwin. ""
Management reports also help
managers evaluate the expense in­volved
in sophisticated kitchen equip­ment.
"I think managers would be
less prone to want some of the bells
April1986
and whistles on equipment if they
were aware there is a direct charge
back to their programs.
"We want them to ask whether we
should pay for the bells and whistles
or put this money back into higher
quality food for the students. There
are many decisions that can be made
and attitudes than can be adjusted
based on the information that our re­ports
provide," says Godwin.
GATORS works with the system
each school has in place to protect
the identity of those students who re­ceive
free and reduced-price meals,
about 50 percent of those served in
Alachua County.
Cashiers identify the type of meal
by a code on meal tickets or roster of
students. "We want the food service
program to be a satisfying and posi­tive
part of the school day. We don't
want anyone to feel different," says
Godwin.
For paid lunches, Godwin encour­ages
students to prepay by offering a
discount if at least five meals are
paid in advance. "Parents have
picked up on this incentive, which
helps us plan our food needs better
while saving students money," she
says.
One way Godwin keeps cost to a
minimum is the use of USDA-donated
commodities. "We use all the USDA
commodities that we can since it can
really cut our costs. I encourage my
managers to be innovative in utilizing
the donated foods," she says.
The county has computerized the
inventory of USDA commodities, mak­ing
it easy for lunch managers to
keep track of what foods they're
using, what they have on hand, and
what they need to order.
The change was
worth the effort
From the start, Godwin was con­vinced
that computerizing the lunch
program was worth the effort and fi­nancial
commitment it required. The
county had the option of buying or
leasing the computer equipment.
They decided to buy the terminals for
the schools-postponing some
kitchen equipment purchases to pay
for them-and lease the telephone
modems.
"We wanted to show the school
lunch managers our commitment to
this project through our purchase of
the terminals," says Godwin. "When
you lease computer equipment, peo­ple
sometimes think that it will be re­placed
or taken out if problems come
up. We were dedicated to changing
to the best technology available."
In deciding how to automate their
lunch programs, Godwin suggests
19
schools evaluate their needs care­fully.
"A system has to fit the needs
of people and the priorities of that
particular location," she says . Due to
the expense involved in changing to
computers, a system like GATORS
may be best suited for those school
districts that need to automate or
have obsolete equipment.
Before automating her own pro­gram,
Godwin spent time looking into
how computers were helping other
food service people. She feels school
lunch managers can learn a lot from
private industry.
"We have to look at what people in
private industry-for instance the fast
food chains-have developed for in­ventories
and sales to see if that is a
need we have," she says .
County program
is now a model
Harold Blanton, state food and nu-
20
With the computerized cash collection sys­tem,
children spend less time waiting in line.
Lines move faster because item costs are
programmed into the registers.
trition director, is encouraging other
Florida districts to adopt the GATORS
system . "We are hopeful that many
school systems will take advantage of
this technology . At this time , around
15 counties plan to use all or part of
the model, " says Blanton .
Among the school systems that are
implementing or are interested in
GATORS are Dade County (Miami),
Duval County (Jacksonville), and in
Georgia, Atlanta . Alachua County
staff have held a number of seminars
on GATORS technology for other
school districts.
GATORS is part of FIRN (Florida
Information Resource Network) that
will link all Florida school districts,
universities, and the state education
office later this year. This will allow
computers to transfer funds for school
food service throughout the state.
Alachua County is already sending
school lunch participation reports to
the state office through FIRN, which
allows quicker reimbursement of funds.
GATORS has given Gainesville a
more effective school lunch program
today. Tomorrow it may be a man­agement
information system that is
used in school lunch programs
throughout the country.
For more information contact:
Harold Blanton, Administrator
Food and Nutrition Management
State Department of Education
319 Knott Building
Tallahassee, Florida 32304
Telephone: (904) 488-7647
Director of Food Service
School Board of Alachua County
620 East University Avenue
Gainesville, Florida 32601
Telephone: (904) 395-0539
article and photos
by Kent Taylor
Food and Nutrition
Statewide
Network
Simplifies
School Lunch
Management
In Maryland
In Maryland, a new statewide com­puter
network is making life easier for
school lunch managers. The network
links the state education agency,
which administers the National School
Lunch Program, with every school
district in the state.
Now, instead of having to prepare
long and complicated written reports
for reimbursement and other pur­poses,
school staff simply key the in­formation
into the computer terminal
installed in their offices and send it
electronically to the state office.
Maryland is one of the first states
in the country to go full steam ahead
in setting up a total network of tech­nological
communications with its lo­cal
education authorities (LEA's).
Managers like
the new system
Preliminary work on the system be­gan
in 1981 when the state con­tracted
with the Center for Educa­tional
Research and Development at
the University of Maryland to design,
develop, and test an automated data
processing system for both the child
nutrition and commodity distribution
programs.
In 1983, the state won approval
from FNS ' Mid-Atlantic regional office
to spend $166,000 in state adminis­trative
expense funds on the project.
Within a year, there was a computer
network between the state and all 24
school districts. Schools have not
only welcomed the computer equip­ment
installed by the state, they have
also added to it with purchases that
increase their computer capabilities.
Joan Weatherholtz, who directs the
education support service branch for
the state department of education, is
sold on the new system. "It has
greatly simplified communications,"
she says, "enabling the state agency
to gather and process information
quickly and accurately."
According to Robert Cliser, chief of
accountability for the branch, the sys­tem
is also saving money. In the first
6 months of 1985, the computer net­work
saved the state approximately
$200,000.
Cliser was convinced from the start
that the system would be cost effec­tive
and that it would answer an ur­gent
need to improve reporting proce­dures
at both the state and LEA
levels.
Developed in
several stages
The state is now through its first
phase of completion. The principal
uses of the system have been to:
establish and update data bases of
standard information for items such
as routine reports; to provide for a
rapid exchange of information; and to
facilitate reporting and reimbursement
processes.
Microcomputers, like this
one in Baltimore, link Mary­land
school districts with
the state office.
Among the specific items proc­essed
for the child nutrition programs
are program agreements with boards
of education, oy.erall information on
schools and on student applications
for free and reduced-price meals, and
pertinent information on severe need
schools.
The data processing system is
used to process requests from LEA's
to the state for payment on letters of
credit; produce statistical reports for
reimbursement; prepare semi-annual
financial reports to establish per-meal
costs; and monitor operating bal­ances.
It also helps make projections
used for planning and budgeting.
As Cliser points out, the turn­around
time for an LEA's request for
payment by the state on a letter of
credit used to be about 5 to 8 days.
With the computer system, this has
been reduced to about 2 days. The
turn-around time for sponsors to re­ceive
claims payments based on
monthly statistical reimbursements
has been cut from a maximum of 8
weeks to about 2 weeks, since this
report, as well as others, is being au­tomatically
edited instead of manually
checked.
Information on the commodity pro­gram
has also been computerized,
making it easier for program manag­ers
to determine the availability and
value of USDA-donated foods and to
order bonus commodities.
"This year, phase two is being im­plemented,"
Weatherholtz says. "The
branch is working with the LEA's to
establish an electronic mail system
and to develop a prog.ram that will re­place
hands-on processing of applica­tions
for free and reduced-price
meals."
During the third phase of the proj­ect,
this year and next, there will be
additional programs developed to im­prove
the management of local
school food service operations.
Many advantages
for local staff
Local school food service manag­ers
are benefiting from the system in
a number of ways. Stanley Smith, di-@
rector of school food services for
Baltimore County, says he finds the
system particularly helpful in submit­ting
routine reports and retrieving in­formation
in the proper format.
Baltimore County, which has 146
schools, has expanded the system to
set up programs for equipment inven-
22
tory. "Instead of locating information
manually," Smith says, "we now can
rapidly retrieve the most specific in­formation,
such as how many stoves
or kettles there are in any kitchen or
what the model numbers are on the
ovens." The district's add-ons to date
have cost about $5,000.
Don Trumble, director of school
food services for Washington Coun­ty's
42 schools in western Maryland,
calls the system "indispensable" and
praises the speed and efficiency it
provides in handling repetitive tasks.
An example is the county's report
on summer school food service. "It
used to be difficult to get it out to the
state by September 15," he says, "but
now we get it out by September 3."
Getting commodities is faster as
well. Trumble says he can now order
bonus commodities on a screen and
have them within approximately 1 0
days. "Before the system went into
operation," he explains, "it took 3 to 5
weeks to process an order." This in­volved
querying the state, waiting for
the state to determine if it had the
food, then going through the tedious
paperwork that was needed. Saving
time with these orders is critical in
menu planning.
Trumble is pleased with the way
the state staff has helped the LEA's
put their systems into operation.
"They're going at a very rapid rate,"
he says. "With the electronic mail
system established in August, you
can leave a message for anyone on
the network."
Like Baltimore County, Washington
County has added to the basic sys­tem.
Trumble is especially proud of
the plotter machine, which has total
graphic capabilities. The additions to
the system, including a word process­ing
package, have cost Washington
County $4,000.
County and state staff are quick to
agree that the costs of automating
are worth the results. For a relatively
small investment, they've made some
big improvements in their programs.
For more information, contact:
Joan Weatherholtz, Chief
Educational Support Services Branch
State Department of Education
200 West Baltimore St.
Baltimore, Maryland 21201-2595
Telephone: (301) 659-2600
article by Ellen Lancaster
photo by Larry Rana
Special
Project in
West Virginia
Links State
And Federal
Offices
Like Maryland, West Virginia is
leading the way in automating school
lunch program management. In this
case, however, the electronic link is
between the state department of edu­cation
and FNS' Mid-Atlantic regional
office (MARO) in Trenton, New
Jersey.
Working with MARO's financial
management staff in a project begun
in 1984, West Virginia has automated
at the state level all claims reporting
for the National School Lunch Pro­gram.
Claims, requests for payment,
and a report known as "FNS-1 0" (Re­port
of School Programs Operations)
are now processed with a new com­puter
system developed by MARO.
Prior to completion of this project,
state staff manually entered data from
local school food authorities on indi­vidual
spread sheets and processed
claims, requests for payment, and re­ports
with pencil, paper, and desk
calculator. This was both time con­suming
and error prone.
"The new system really saves
time," says Diane Hill, who has had
8 years of experience preparing these
reports in the department of educa­tion's
internal finance office. "It pro­vides
more accurate figures and cal­culates
reimbursements automatically,
eliminating math errors."
Information sent
via phone hook-up
As the system is set up, monthly
data from the 55 county offices and
11 0 private schools and residential
centers is entered into the computer
at the state level. The computer gen­erates
the FNS-1 0 report, transmits it
by a special telephone hook-up to an­other
computer at the regional office,
and updates the state's individual
school claims records. It also gener­ates
the paperwork needed to reim­burse
schools for meals served to
participating children.
Food and Nutrition
The computer at the regional office
generates a printed copy of the
FNS-1 0. Information submitted on it is
later verified during routine financial
reviews conducted by regional office
staff.
Receiving the information electron­ically
saves a great deal of time for
the FNS regional office as well as the
state. A big advantage for MARO
staff is that they do not have to re­key
the information into their cash
management analysis system. This
analysis is used by the region's finan­cial
management staff to project fund­ing
needs.
Representatives from MARO and
West Virginia worked together on set­ting
up the new system, which will
serve as a model for other states.
Both agencies realized that many of
the potential users were inexperi­enced
with computers and that set­ting
up an initial system that was too
technical could turn what was once
just a manual reporting headache into
an electronic nightmare.
For this reason, they kept the sys­tem
as simple and non-disruptive to
current operations as possible. As
MARO systems analyst Dennis
Martko says, "The major difference
between the manual system and the
automated system we proposed was
that the information would be viewed
on a computer screen and people
would no longer be working with
volumes of paper."
The basic system developed can
easily be enhanced as the state
agency becomes more proficient in
using it.
April1986
Also automating
in other ways
West Virginia is interested in auto­mating
claims processing at the
county level and would eventually like
to have data entered at the school
level. "We are excited about the po­tential
of the system," says Faith
Gravenmier, state director of child nu­trition
programs for West Virginia,
"and everyone involved has a positive
attitude. In fact, some county offices
have already volunteered to pilot test
data entry at the county level."
This would provide for complete
automation of the system. Staff time
and resources needed to produce the
monthly reports would all be reduced.
Reports could be transmitted in a
matter of minutes to the state office
and from there, consolidated FNS-1 0
reports could be prepared and trans­mitted
to the regional office, without
having to re-enter the data at the
state level.
The next report scheduled for auto­mation
at the state level is FNS-44, a
report on the Child Care Food Pro­gram
submitted monthly to the re­gional
office. Other food program re­ports
that may be automated in the
future include the quarterly financial
status report, and reports required for
the state's food stamp and WIC
programs.
MARO's immediate goal is to
have all states in the region using
paperless reporting for the child care
and school food programs by the end
of 1986 or early 1987. This will in-valve
sharing with other states the
technology developed in West
Virginia.
Eventual link
to Washington
MARO is also working with FNS
headquarters staff to connect the re­gional
office directly to Washington,
eliminating the need to re-key reports
received via computer from state
agencies. This will allow complete au­tomation
of the reporting process
from the state to the region to the na­tional
office.
At every step in the process,
paperless reporting eliminates oppor­tunities
for errors. It also saves staff
time, paper, and filing space.
As Ron Koushel, MARO's director
of financial management, says,
paperless reporting will eventually
make "hard copy" reporting obsolete.
West Virginia's new system is a big
step in that direction.
For additional information, contact:
Cathy Squires, Section Chief
Financial Operations
Mid-Atlantic Regional Office
Food and Nutrition Service
CN 02150
Trenton, New Jersey 08650
Telephone: (609) 259-5150
article by Carol Savage
...
23
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Richard E. Lyng
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Food and Nutrition Service
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(o),lbOd
~Nutrition
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Food and Nutrition is a magazine of
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