School cafeteria menu boards are different from QSR’s (Quick Service Restaurants) for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that QSR’s tend to have the same menu day in and day out. A school menu changes every day so needs to be able to be programmed this way.
The second reason is most schools have more than one point of sale. This means that menus at the same location may be showing different things.
For example: One school we were involved with has 4 lines. Each line has a different entrée and each monitor will reflect this.
This allows the students to get into the correct line for the food item they want. As one Cafeteria Manager put it, “If there is no clear indication what is available in each line then a student may get to the front of the line expecting a burger only to be told that is the pizza line. The server then has to go to a different line to get a burger. This is both time-consuming and potentially dangerous”
One of the big advantages of digital menus is that it is not necessary to show only food items on the monitor. School activities, school sports news and public information videos can all be shown. The menus can be reprogrammed quickly and easily and can show virtually anything.