Case Study: Hayward Unified School District reduces unpaid lunch balances and saves thousands with OnSolve One Call Now

Good communication A key ingredient for food service serving 20,000 students

Hayward Unified School District’s Food Services serves over 20,000 K–12 students across 31 East Bay schools, with about 65% of families identifying as Hispanic or Latino. The department relied on mailed notices and occasional cafeteria announcements to prompt free/reduced lunch applications and collect unpaid lunch balances—an approach that was costly, unreliable, raised privacy and embarrassment concerns, and left the district with large unpaid balances at year-end.

Beginning in 2016–17 the district integrated the One Call Now automated notification system with its Nutrikids billing app to send about 1,100 bilingual (English/Spanish) calls and emails every two weeks. Automated queries generate recipient files and populate student names and balances; in the first year unpaid balances dropped significantly, the district saved thousands in mailing and labor costs, parents appreciated timely updates, and students avoided public notices in the cafeteria.

Hayward Unified School District

Carlos Melara

Technology Specialist