Canteen Mate
Cashless canteen ordering and meal management for schools
The story behind the app
Canteen Mate (FoodCity) digitises the school canteen — letting parents top up wallets, pre-order meals and track exactly what their children spend, while the canteen runs a fast, queue-free NFC checkout. DataHex delivered the parent app, the wallet system and the canteen-side flow end to end.
- CLIENT
- FoodCity / School canteen operator
- INDUSTRY
- Food & Drink · EdTech
- PLATFORMS
- Android · iOS
- TIMELINE
- 14 weeks
The challenge
01Cash at the school canteen meant long queues, lost money and zero visibility for parents over what their kids ate or spent. The operator needed a cashless system that was fast at the counter, transparent for parents and simple for canteen staff to run during a packed lunch break.
Our approach
02We built a digital wallet with secure top-ups, tied each student to an NFC tag for instant tap-to-pay, and gave parents real-time spend tracking and meal pre-ordering. The canteen-side flow was optimised for speed so a single tap completes an order, while server-side reporting gives operators a live view of sales and inventory.
Key features & capabilities
Digital wallet & top-ups
Parents load money securely and set limits, with every transaction logged in real time.
NFC tap-to-pay
Students tap a card to pay in under a second, eliminating cash and queues at the counter.
Pre-order meals
Order ahead from the daily menu so meals are ready and waiting at break time.
Spend tracking for parents
Full transparency over balances, purchases and daily spend, all from the phone.
Screenshots
Tap any screen to enlarge.
The results
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