Nashville, Tenn., schools get high-tech kitchen equipment

The Wilson County and Murfreesboro City districts added TempZone thermo sensors about a year ago and are reporting less food waste and reduced energy costs. The TempZone solution wirelessly sends up-to-the-minute information about temperature, unit health and emergency alerts to school officials over Verizon’s network. TempZone is a division of Nashville-based TrackPoint Systems.

“TempZone has improved our operations by eliminating the need for cafeteria staff members to regularly check and record refrigerator and freezer temperatures - the solution keeps a constant eye on our cooling units for us,” said Melody Turner, Nutrition Director with Wilson County Schools. “I now have at-a-glance statistics via a dashboard platform, which makes it simpler to manage units across the county’s 19 schools.”

TempZone is completely wireless and features a battery backup so it remains functional during a power outage or when wireline Internet access is lost.

Districts have noticed real value in using TempZone while school is out of session, such as during weekends, summer break or when inclement weather leads to canceled classes.

According to Turner, “shortly after we installed TempZone I was out of town, and the system sent me an alert on a Friday evening that a freezer was failing. That enabled me to instruct my staff to move more than $5,000 worth of food to a working unit and have the other freezer repaired. That’s real value for us.”