Planning New Menus

Our menu feature allows providers or centers to plan menus in advance that cover all participants and allow you to select exact food items for each day.

• Click on “Menu” on the main dashboard. This will take you to the menu calendar.

• On the menu calendar, click on the date and meal type for which you want to enter a menu. This will take you to the meal details screen.
• On the meal details screen, click on the blue “Edit Menu” button.

1. Enter a “Description for Print View”. The text typed into this box will appear when you print a menu instead of the list of food items. Some sponsors have this option turned off. If you do not see a Description for Print View box, then your sponsor has this option turned off.
2. Enter “Menu Notes”. The text typed into this box will appear when you print a menu in addition to the list of food items.
3. Select a saved menu from the “Use Saved Menu” drop-down and the food items will populate.

1. Go through each of the required food groups and select the food item that you are using to satisfy that meal pattern requirement. You must have a food item for each required meal component in order to save the menu.
2. You may add food items two ways
• Use the Favorite Foods dropdown.
• Search our food database. If you use the search function, we recommend keeping your search term broad as the system will not recognize mis-spelled words or partial matches. Some sponsors limit the use of the search function. If you do not see a search box, then this feature was turned off by your sponsor.
3. If you would like to see portion sizes or adjust the portion served, click the hyperlink that says "Show portion sizes"
4. If you select a food item by mistake, simply click the red “Remove” button.
   
5. When you are done, click the green “Save” button to return to the Meal Details screen.
   

During meal planning, we offer the option to mark a food item as an “extra” and indicate that it does not contribute to the meal pattern requirements. The option to mark a food item as an extra will appear in two scenarios:

1. There are more than two components offered at a snack for non-infants.
2. There are multiple food items offered in the same food group.

Food items marked as extras will not trigger the following errors:

• Meals Disallowed for Food Shortage
• Meal Does Not Meet 2016 Meal Pattern (Juice)
• No Milk on Menu for Participant Age Range (it is only possible to mark milk as an extra at snack since it is required for meals)

On the other hand, food items marked as extras will NOT count toward satisfying the meal pattern requirements or the requirement for a whole grain-rich food at one meal or snack per day.