Starting this year the Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) is rolling out a new online system for payments and allergy tracking that works for all the OCONUS schools where they are in charge of the lunch program.
In the past, when you moved your school lunch account information did not follow you. Bummer. You had to go to the new school and sign up again. You also had to just kind of pray that your kid did not eat a food to which he is allergic.
Now if you move from, say, Japan to Italy, you don't have to set up a new account or go to the school. Your account will work everywhere. And a tool in the system that tracks food ingredients and your kids' allergies will block him from being permitted to buy something with an allergen -- or even an item you simply don't want him purchasing.
It's the little things, am I right?
The system, called MyPaymentPlus, comes with an app. And you can find out more about the app and the system here.
One quick caveat on this: the change is for AAFES-operated locations, so that's about 75 cafeterias. The Navy Exchange also runs school lunch programs at 16 locations, and this does not impact them -- or the one location in Japan operated by the Marine Corps Exchange.
(Photo: U.S. Army)
