Online school lunch payment system goes global Published Sept. 28, 2009 MAINZ-KASTEL, Germany -- After more than a year of testing at select locations, the Army and Air Force Exchange Service is offering online access to school lunch accounts throughout Europe and the Pacific. "The new system makes secure pre-payments convenient for parents who can now manage multiple accounts from the comfort of their home or work," said Lt. Col. Wayne Marotto, AAFES Europe public affairs officer. "The program takes all the work out of keeping up with school lunches and even sends an alert when the account's balance gets low." The new, online system allows parents to make prepayments using a bank account or credit card. Setting up an account does require an initial visit to the nearest exchange's cash cage to set up a "Horizon" account, but that one visit will pay big dividends as everything, from that point forward, can be tracked and maintained from any computer connected to the internet. After the "Horizon" account has been assigned at the exchange, parents simply log on to www.mealpayplus.com and follow step-by-step instructions to set up their online profile. From there, parents are able to view a summary of multiple student account balances, pay towards multiple student accounts with one payment and view student account payment history. AAFES provides school lunch to kindergarten through 12th grade students on Army and Air Force installations in nine countries overseas. The command serves approximately 21,000 pattern meals each day for a total of more than 4.4 million meals each school year. AAFES supports educational programs in 92 schools throughout Europe and the Pacific. For information, call the Bitburg Exchange at DSN 452-9227 or the Spangdahlem Exchange at 06565-957215.