Kitchen cookers, water dispensers, and tuck-shop terminals.

The system keeps an eye on the cookers for safety (alerting kitchen staff if one is left on with no activity), and runs the cashless water dispensers and tuck-shop terminals with per-student accounts that parents top up over M-Pesa.

The kitchen and the cashless dispensers are the two parts of the compound that students touch every day. We watch the cookers for safety — if one is left on without any change in temperature for too long, kitchen staff get an alert and there is an optional automatic gas-valve cutoff. We also run the cashless water dispensers and the tuck-shop terminals so that consumption is tracked per student, top-ups happen over M-Pesa, and there is no cash to lose track of.

What you get

Cooker safety

If a cooker is left on for more than about 30 minutes without any change in temperature, kitchen staff get an alert on their phone. If you want it, we can also add an automatic gas-valve cutoff for extra safety.

Cashless water dispensers

The student taps a card or an RFID wristband on the dispenser and gets the litres of water that they have credit for. Each student's consumption is logged, so you know who is using how much.

Tuck-shop terminal

The tuck-shop till is a cashless tap-and-pay terminal tied to each student's account. Parents top up the account over M-Pesa, so the school does not have to handle small cash from students every day.

Stock alerts

When the water dispenser tank or the tuck-shop drinks fridge drops below a level you set, the kitchen team gets a notification so they can refill before students notice.

A real situation

14:20

What happened

Cooker 3 has been on at low flame for 38 minutes with no temperature change. Lunch service ended at 13:30.

What we did about it

Kitchen lead's phone buzzes. She walks back in, finds the cooker left lit by mistake. Turns it off. No fire, no wasted gas.

Up next

Gates — Running the gates and keeping a record of who came through.

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