Record School Release Day(s)

The “Field Trips, Closures or School Release Dates” section of My Food Program is intended for sites to provide prior notification to their sponsor of 

  • a site closure or a time when the children will be away from the site at meal time so that a sponsor does not attempt to conduct a review visit on a day when a meal cannot be observed
  • mark a school release day so that My Food Program knows to look at the school release participant schedule. Most common would be that marking a school release day allows AM snack and lunch to be claimed for school agers.


To record a single day school release day:

  • Click on “Fields Trips, Closures or School Release Days” on the main dashboard.
  • Click the blue “Add” button to the right of the "School Release or Summer" header.
  • Complete the fields:
    • Reason Off Site (required): select from:
      • Summer Release Dates (this allows meals to be claimed)
      • School Release Dates (this allows meals to be claimed)
      • Multiple Day Holiday Closure (this prevents meals from being claimed)
      • Multiple Day Facility Closure (this prevents meals from being claimed)
    • Description (required)
    • Start Date (required)
    • End Date (required)
  • Click “Save”.
  • Note: you will be alerted if you try to enter a date that is already marked as a field trip, closure or holiday.


A recorded school releases day will show on the menu calendar with the bus with a slash through it icon.

You will not be able to take meal counts for these meals. If you try to record a meal count you will receive the following error: “Site closure for this day and meal.”

If you record attendance and meal counts and then add the closure, those meals will be disallowed with the following error: “Meals/Snacks claimed outside of the operating days.”

Note that only future school release days will be displayed on the main screen, unless you check the box "Display Dates Before Today":

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