Testimonials...
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I just wanted to send a quick email to let you know that the program is fantastic! We are still in the ordering process, first lunch day is October 8. The parents are thrilled, the campus coordinators are thrilled, and my small team of administration is ecstatic. The system is so user friendly, there is a lot to learn, but everything is so accessible. Thank you for all the support, looks like we are on our way. Setting up the 3 separate campuses was the best idea for us and all is running smoothly. Great product, great support. Mindy Jacobs |
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Thanks to you, Mark and the whole team! This program has reduced our work load, increased parent satisfaction, decreased our error rate, saved many trees worth of paper and overall increased the viability and profitability of our Hot lunch program! Great job! Penny Lindballe |
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Thank you for making our Hot Lunches run so much more smoothly. You have an excellent program. Heather Gagnier |
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Just wanted to let you know I LOVE HOTLUNCHES.NET!! It makes me want to cry a little because it is so easy to use from a user and an administrator perspective! If it was 100% up to me we would already be signed up for next year!! Anyway, just a note to say thank you for creating such a wonderful program, it seems you thought of everything when you designed it! Christine Ony |
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PANDA is very happy with it's transition to hotlunches.net. The website is really great for our parents association, hot lunch program and fundraising campaigns. Our families are using it with ease and really picked it up quickly. The co-ordinator has had all of our questions responded to very promptly and always been able to get help when needed. Our requests for different reports and specific requirements to our hot lunch program; have been accommodated very efficiently. Mark has been fantastic to work with, hotlunches.net is a great addition to our parents association. We would recommend this program to anyone who asked as it is the easiest and does the most out of all programs we have tried. Taya Tattersall |
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I'd like to say again how much we appreciate this system and your prompt response to all our questions. Having done it the "old way" for 7 years, this is a dream come true. Pamela Geddes |
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I looked into Hotlunches.net in May of 2011, when I was asked to help Chair my children's School PAC. I was seeking an organized, time efficient way to order hot lunches. I have to say that we couldn't be happier with this service. Not only has it decreased the amount of paper and time spent on counting of money, it has also decreased the workload for many volunteer parents. Our suppliers are also very happy with using this format. We are the first school in our province to use it, and we did have some criticism in the beginning from parents and our School District, but in the end, everyone has been pleased and Mark has been outstanding at answering our questions on a timely and very professional manner. I would highly recommend this for any School. Thanks Hotlunches.net! Susan MacArthur |
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I'm writing to you to let you know that I love using the Online Hot Lunch Ordering Application for George Pringle Elementary this year! I can not imagine running a hot lunch program at a school without it. There was a little bit of a learning curve to using the application at the start but there always is when using new software. The application fullfills all the needs for our school and more! I enjoyed customizing the website, it was fun tinkering with it. The best part is that I don't need to calculate anything! I feel confident that my quantity totals, costs and revenues are accurate. Thank you for developing a very useful online application for schools! Mari Dzus |
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"The new Hot Lunch system is great." is a phrase we have heard over and over again since we chose to partner with you in the fall. I am a big believer in automating the simple tasks and making the administration of things less time consuming. Within minutes of using the demo site for HotLunches.net, I knew right away we had found the right system. The hours of data entry, running reports and managing the process simply have disappeared. But no one wants to hear about the infrastructure, what do the customers think. People love the ease of the system - How quick and easy it is to complete their children's order. The e-mail weekly reminder is awesome. One parent told us they wish the system could remind them to do the laundry, pick up the kids and make dinner (Future Enhancement, maybe?). We are already hearing from other's within the school community on how we can expand the use of the product for other things and how to open up the PayPal option. Thanks so much for your patience in working with us on getting the site up and running. We look forward to expanding the use in the years to come. Robert Richard |
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Just a quick note to tell you how very much I love your product. When we first spoke many months ago, I was more than a little bit skeptical that "Hotlunches.net" was really worth the money and effort to get it up and running. While, after we spoke a number of times, I could certainly see you fully understood the plight of the massive and complicated hot lunch spreadsheets, I was still unclear just how good your website was. I can tell you now, that after just a few short months, Hotlunches.net has been my savior. I chose to take a leap of faith in August and haven't been disappointed even for one moment. Not only is the program a massive saver of time and paper, it is highly functional, not only for the hot lunch program but for the School Council as a whole. The website and email capabilities has become a valuable communication tool for our students and families. The other bonus... the system is so easy to use and makes it so easy to run a hot lunch day that we've increased the number of days we're offering a hot lunch to our students. Who would have thought? We also need very few volunteers to run each day. Set up was simple and by the numbers, and support is ample and constant. I so appreciate your willingness to incorporate new ideas for the unique situations that present themselves for each of our schools. You've done an excellent job of keeping up with our requests in a prompt manner, and have thoroughly informed us all on what the changes mean to the system. Every school that runs a hot lunch program needs your system. To be accurate, efficient, safe, profitable and accountable. To anyone who isn't using Hotlunches.net I say... "What are you waiting for?" Thank you for having the ambition to create this program. Simply put, you've saved me, my school, and all the volunteers a tremendous amount of time, stress and frustration. Which ultimately means with volunteerism waning, you've preserved our hot lunch program that our students love so much, for years to come. A long distance three cheers from Stoneybrook Public School, London, ON. Lesley Hart |
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We were on a web-based program prior to coming onto hotlunches.net. Our program was very basic but it suited our needs. However, due to support issues, we had to investigate other options and hotlunches.net was the one we chose. No regrets. This program is so powerful, flexible and easy for anyone to use. The support is second to none. And Mark, what can I say about Mark; he is a technical genius and extremely patient with those of us who are technically challenged. It is rare to meet a "techie" who is so good with people. I love that if we question him on why the program does this and not that, all of a sudden you will get an update saying that what you mentioned is changed. Coming from a background of very little support, it is a real treat dealing with Mark. The regular update emails are also a nice touch. Mark tells us the latest changes to the program and how each will work. It is interesting to hear about other schools and their procedures as well as to know what the current capabilities of the system are. We used to print out the order forms and copy them to hand out to each student, get them back, do the data entry, etc. Now we just tell people how to get on the website and the only paper generated is for lunch distribution. I would guess it has cut the administrative hours by at least 75% and the paper by 95%. With this program we are working towards being as close to paperless as we can get. We even got a donated laptop that we keep in the kitchen and pull out on hot lunch days to check orders, supplies, etc. instead of having to print things out ahead for "just in case" situations. Katrina Albert and Cyndi Park |
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We are very happy with hotlunches.net. Manual data processing was time consuming, excel sheets had to be checked over and over again, and sometimes were lost (causing something less than marital bliss). This system has saved the volunteers untold hours, and the output was far more accurate than ever before. Even the first day went smoothly, something unheard of in the past. We completely eliminated paper orders, and had over 70% of our transactions paid by credit card. This eliminated hours of accounting. I have been particularly impressed with Mark's ability to implement program enhancements and suggestions that were requested. Often these were implemented within a few hours. I administer several databases, and enhancements requested often take months or years to get implemented. The service has been top notch. Thanks Mark, for all your efforts and upgrades to this system. I would recommend using hotlunches.net without hesitation. Jim Watts |
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This is our first year using Hotlunches.net, and the response from parents was overwhelmingly positive. We had over 90% of our parents place their orders online, with many parent emails saying how much quicker and easier the whole lunch ordering process was. As the administrator, I have found the system very straightforward to use, with lots of built-in flexibility to adapt to the specific needs of our school. It was very satisfying to watch the orders come pouring in, and the processing of payments was very easy. Mark has created many very useful reports, with accurate information ready to go at the touch of a button. The online classifieds have been very popular also. In terms of customer service, Mark has consistently responded to every enquiry with humour, professionalism and speed. He has willingly accommodated the specific requirements of our school, as well as other schools, and continuously strived to create a product with enhanced functionality. Further, he has clearly and consistently communicated system revisions. This is a great product and Mark is a pleasure to work with. Kate Weiss |
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I am a parent on the HOT LUNCH COMITTEE from Carnarvon Community School in Vancouver and have just started to use the program since September after many years of frustrations with PAPER orders. I have found an overwhelmingly positive response from parents who have found it easy and fast to use (and love the paypal option) and from our hot lunch committee who have found pizza days go faster and smoother. I had and still have questions as they come up with the system and Mark is very fast at responding to all my emails. All in all, a good choice by our school. Helen Reid |
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The Belgo PAC purchased the hotlunches.net program in June 2009, and began using the program for hot lunch orders this September. We can not say enough positive things about this program, it is extremely easy to use and a phenomenal organizational tool. We have not encountered any "glitches" and all of the transactions and ordering has been smooth and hassle free. Additionally, the customer service Mark Fester provides is extraordinary. He always returns calls and emails in a timely manner and provides regular updates in relation to program changes etc. Mark has modified the program based on customer suggestions and we were especially impressed when he took the time to meet with us personally when we were considering purchasing the program. The PAC at Belgo Elementary will continue to purchase the hotlunches.net program, and it is well worth the cost. Amber Himbeault |
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We started using Hotlunches.net for our pizza orders and quickly realized it would be an efficient and easy way for families to participate in other fundraising programs, like gift cards. Mark works hard to make the system work for us; and he is always available and helpful when there are questions or problems. Hard to believe: technical support that is friendly and funny! Katherine Taylor |
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I have to tell you, now that I've used the PAC hot lunch website for one term, I can't imagine doing a hot lunch program without it. From the ease at which parents can enter their orders to the ease at which I can get the totals to order the food - so simple yet so essential. Because parents enter in their own order, they can see what the total is and write their cheque based on that total. This has significantly reduced the number of cheques that were written incorrectly based on totals added up wrong when they were done manually. And, it allows many volunteers to access the information that is needed without physically passing paper back and forth - from ordering food, to printing out the class totals. This website was also essential when I was coordinating the Fall Fair. The ease at which I could send out emails to the entire school or just to specific classes - amazing. Thank you so much for coming up with the concept and designing this. I strongly believe every school should have this website! Sincerely, |
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I took on the Hot Lunch Program at our school a year and 1/2 ago because our PAC president assured me it "was easy". As with most things I take on, I jumped in with both feet, thinking if we have it every 2 weeks, why not once a week. Of course kids and parents were delighted, but then I found out, Well EASY it wasn't! A lot of paper work!! I mean a lot of paper work. Transferring orders to an Excel worksheet I created in desperation, adding up orders, checking cheques, and then transferring numbers to restaurant order sheets. And then along comes HOTLUNCHES.NET. I basically worked myself out of a job in less than a month. Parents order on-line, the system adds up their order for them, and all we have to is input their cheque amount - which the system will even tell us if they over or under paid. If they are late paying we can send them a friendly email reminder. With a little nagging, Mark even added a feature that we can email all the supplier orders directly to the restaurants. No more transferring numbers to another form!! I mean really, can it be much more delightful. Not only that - but we can post upcoming events and all of the important days including PDDays, Early Dismissal and Holidays. Yes - a great system, that is VERY easy to use. Thanks Mark - WELL WELL WELL DONE !! Glenda Good |
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I has to say, amazing job with the site - this is exactly what WRE needed! So much more useful than the official site - I'm wondering if we could just move the newsletters and important dates over here, so I don't need 2 bookmarks :) Anyways - huge thanks for putting this together - very impressive! Mick |
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Wow!!! What a great system! Great job! Lisa :) |