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“LINQ reporting is the best I’ve ever seen.”
Penny Kelly
Food Service Director
Chisum ISD, TX
Chisum ISD Food Service Director Penny Kelly offers a simple piece of advice for any district thinking about implementing LINQ District Nutrition: “Do it.” With 27 years of experience working in the tech industry before switching to K-12 nutrition, she says she knows her way around data systems, and LINQ ticks all the boxes for her. “I see how things work together, and I see that with your system,” she says.
Kelly brings a unique perspective to her role in public education. She’s adamant that technology should make work easier. That means fewer manual processes and tasks, automated inventory tracking, and easy reporting functions. When she told us our solution delivers on her expectations, we asked to learn more about how LINQ Nutrition helps her district save time, money, and stress on employees.
Scan and Go—Barcode and Biometric Scanning Saves Time
Kelly’s district trusts front-of-house (FOH) and back-of-house (BOH) inventory to LINQ District Nutrition. In addition to providing the only fully integrated FOH and BOH solution for K-12 nutrition, Kelly says scanning inventory and nutrition labels is a time saver for her team. “LINQ is the only company that let us scan the nutrition label and go into the fields rather than just getting a picture,” she remembers. That was a big selling point at the time, and it gives her team more control over program management.
Chisum also implemented biometric scanning with their LINQ solution. Many districts implement this new technology to help their meal lines move faster. Kelly says the big win with LINQ is that it simply works—they had no trouble getting it up and running.
Simpler Menu Planning and Recipes
Menus and recipes are foundational to any school nutrition program. However, manual processes can turn these basic tasks into anchors that drag down efficiency. That’s why Chisum ISD, like many other districts, sought a simpler way for staff members to plan menus and create or alter recipes.
Kelly says several technology solutions were considered, and LINQ came out on top in this area, too. “The way you put in the items for menus and creating recipes was a lot simpler than another system we were considering,” Kelly says.
While simplifying day-to-day operations is crucial, Kelly is the first to point out that nutrition management success depends on more than that. Compliance and reporting may not happen every day, but they’re essential to program success—and Kelly says LINQ once again delivers on her expectations in that area.
Worry-Free Compliance and Reporting
Reporting is one of Kelly’s favorite LINQ District Nutrition functions. She says it’s intuitive, thorough, and enables worry-free compliance and reporting conversations. “I think your reports are phenomenal,” she says. Creating custom reports, saving them, and even editing them later is a breeze.
Informed decisions can make all the difference in a K-12 nutrition program’s success. Agile reporting enables program managers and directors to gather the information they need, filter out what they don’t, and see the big picture clearly. Whether planning more appealing menus or making smart budget and recruiting decisions, custom reports are essential.
Kelly speaks from experience when she says, “LINQ reporting is the best I’ve ever seen.” From someone with a background in data management at major technology companies, that’s an endorsement we’re proud to accept.
Chisum ISD plans to trust state compliance reporting to their LINQ solution this year, and Kelly couldn’t be more confident. She says they already gave the platform a trial run. “We did use it for some of our reimbursement claims this year,” and Kelly says it went smoothly. For busy nutrition managers with food prices, staff shortages, and rule changes on their minds, worry-free compliance can feel like a priceless benefit.
Looking Forward with LINQ District Nutrition
Chisum ISD is heading into the future at full speed. With a tech-forward Food Service Director and the right software solutions already on board, they’re proactively taking on challenges and not looking back. We’re proud to partner with this district as they continue to simplify processes and unleash their decision-making potential with accurate, reliable reporting.
See how LINQ District Nutrition supports districts like Chisum ISD:
