Calipatria Unified School District (CUSD) is a public school system serving the communities of Calipatria, Niland, and Bombay Beach in Imperial County, California. CUSD comprises 2 elementary schools, 1 middle school, and 1 high school. CUSD Food Services provides meals to over 1000 K-12 students, many of whom come from low-income families. In some cases, CUSD Food Services provides students with their primary source of nutrition each day. A free meal program runs during the school year and CUSD participates in the Summer Food Service Program to further meet the needs of the community.
CUSD is located in a hot desert climate. In the summer months daily temperatures exceed 100° F. Refrigeration and freezer units are located throughout the district with several units placed outside with limited cover. Manually monitoring the condition of units spread across the four campuses was difficult, especially overnight, during holidays, and on weekends. Manual temperature logging was time consuming and pulled staff away from core duties. Sporadic equipment failures often went unnoticed for hours or even days, resulting in loss of expensive inventory. Inability to track temperature trends efficiently and consistently had the potential to compromise food safety and presented a health risk to the student population.
“Before using Swift Sensors, if a refrigerator or freezer went down over the weekend we had no way of knowing. Often times we wouldn’t find out until the next school day when it was too late,” Amanda Pitones, Cafeteria Manager explains.