Biometrics And School Lunches

I have written about Biometrics being used as a payment system, especially at Grocery Stores, but here is a different application of it . . .

Biometrics Used To Pay For School Lunches

For the longest time, there has always been reduced, free, or a subsidized lunch meal program for underprivileged children at school. This is primarily a Federal Government Program, which sets up accounts for needy families. When the children are ready to purchase their lunch for the day, they present some sort of ID Card to the Cashier, and the amount is merely deducted from their account. Well, this sort of system has had its fair share of problems, and misuse. Now, Biometric Technology, especially Fingerprint Recognition, is playing a big role here now.

Two major Biometric Vendors have joined forces to provide a Biometric Solution for schools which provide for a lunch subsidy program for their students. The two vendors are BIO-key International, Inc. and identiMetrics, Inc. Together, they both announced " . . . a new release of its already popular biometric finger scanning identity solution that quickly and accurately establishes the identity of students entitled to participate in free and reduced lunch programs nationwide." (SOURCE: http://www.findbiometrics.com/press-release/5484).

Because of the current credit crisis, it is highly anticipated that there will be many more requests and subsequent participation in the Federal Government’s School Lunch Subsidy Program (according to the article the current Funding is at about $7 Billion). Thus the need for more streamlined Accounting and a System of Checks and Balances is greatly needed. Thus the need for Biometrics, especially Fingerprint Recognition, comes into play.

The Fingerprint Recognition System that will be implemented by both Biometrics Vendors is called the "identiFi" and "VST" (each respectively manufactured by identiMetrics, Inc. and BIO-key International, Inc.) and it has been proven in different geographic areas. For example, it is used by 60% of the market here in the United States, and even has international exposure, in Australia and Africa (specifically, Nigeria). To pay for the school, a student merely presents his or her Fingerprint to the Fingerprint Scanning System, they are verified in a matter of seconds, and the amount is then automatically deducted from their account.

Final Thoughts On Today’s Posting

The Subsidized School Lunch Program is probably one of the biggest applications for Biometric Technology, especially Fingerprint Recognition. For instance, " . . . Over 48 million students attend more than 130,000 kindergarten through grade 12 public and private schools in the US . . . The identiFi(TM) product is a cost effective, easy to deploy solution that leverages BIO-key's superior accuracy and our proven ability to identify 'little fingers'. This biometric identity solution can deliver immediate results to any school implementing it." (SOURCE: http://www.findbiometrics.com/press-release/5484).

There are a number of key advantages by using Biometric Technology in such a Market Application:

1)  Parents will not have to worry about their kids losing their lunch money or having it stolen or given away.

2)  The students don’t have to remember any Passwords (if Passwords are used, then there is a high probability that the kids could share them) or any other type of Confidential Information like Social Security Numbers.

3)  The Accounting and Record Keeping at the school using the Biometric System becomes much more streamlined, thus the need for paperwork is greatly reduced. At the flash of a Fingerprint, the amount is automatically deducted from the student’s account.

4)  The School Subsidy Lunch Program Account associated with the student is kept private. As a result, parents do not have to worry about kids losing a check or Bank Account Information. All confidential Information and Data is kept safe and encrypted at a secure Database.

5)  The school will have less parents complaining about any abuses to the school’s Lunch Subsidy Program, and as a result, face greatly diminished legal actions taken by parents.

6)  Using a Biometric System will insure that only the kids that are entitled to a free or a subsidized meal get it, and weeds out the impostors who try to fake their way into the Subsidized Lunch Program.

But, although Biometric Technology has great implications and advantages here, once again the key to its success is training the kids and the parents into using such a system. Although the kid cannot be forced into paying for his or her school lunch with their Fingerprint, if the people using the Biometric System are not trained into using it properly or are not aware of it, the clear and present advantages of the Biometric System will just evaporate.

This is best exemplified by my local Grocery Store. Quite some time ago, they implemented a Biometric System (a Fingerprint Recognition System) by which people could pay for their groceries with their Fingerprint, in the exact same way the Subsidized School Lunch Program works with Biometrics. But, the Biometric System was later discontinued because of the lack of customer use. This was a result of lack of Customer Training and Awareness of the Biometric System.

NOTE:  Source for this posting:  http://www.findbiometrics.com/press-release/5484