After items, recipes and menus have been created by Central Office staff and before manufacturing and production can occur, meals must first be planned. Planned counts help to determine ordering quantities.
Establish Meal Planning Counts
- From the Home tab, select Meal Planning.
Establish meals and meal counts for each day.
Meal Planning FeaturesView - Allows you to change how you view the calendar.
- Include Saturdays
- Include Sundays
- Show Recipe Detail - Shows all items included in the recipe for the meal.
- Row Height - Allows you to adjust the size of the rows so all items are visible when more than one recipe is allocated for a day or when viewing recipe details.
Edit Day - Allows you to edit details for the day. You may also edit a day by double-clicking in a cell.
Reset to Template - Resets the entire meal planning calendar to the template established at the District level. Additionally, meal counts are reset to zero.
Automatic Planning - Looks at the last time a menu was used and allows you to apply those meal plans to an upcoming menu in an established date range.
The Automatic Planning option allows you to automatically apply past Planning or Serving records to a future date range.
In order to apply automatic planning, menus and menu counts must first be established.
Establish Auto-Planning options. Then, click Ok.
You must select a date range after the last planning record in order for automatic-planning to be implemented.
For which date range so you want to automatically plan? - Use the calendar tools to select a From and to date range.
What should be used to base the planning on? - Select an option on which to base planning.
Past Planning Records - Looks at past planning numbers for meals and applies those counts to future planning days.
Past Serving Records - Looks at past serving numbers for meals and applies those counts to future planning days.
The progress bar will appear as automatic planning is established.
Move Planning Dates - Allows you to move one or more planned dates due to unexpected service cancellation, such as inclement weather, or swap planned service dates.
If you are moving a date or date range, you may highlight the date/range in the planning calendar by using your mouse and clicking on the first day and dragging to the last day before selecting Move Planning Dates. The date range will be highlighted in blue. You may also select a date/date range through the wizard.
The ability to move planning dates has been made simple through the use of a wizard to guide you through each step.
a. Once you have selected Move Planning Dates, click Next in the wizard to begin.
b. Select the reason for moving one or more planning dates. Then, click Next.
Reason for Moving Planning Days - Select the reason for moving planning dates.
Inclement Weather / Meal Service Cancellation - Select this option if service dates need to be moved/canceled due to weather (snow storm, hurricane, etc).
Swap Menu Planning for Two Different Service Dates/Ranges - Select this option if service dates/date ranges need to be swapped (e.g. Item quantities are insufficient to prepare enough meals).
Other Reasons - Any reason other than those listed above.
c. Select a date or date range to cancel service. Then, click Next.
Source Date(s) to Move - Select the date or date range to cancel/swap service.
Single Day - Use the calendar tool to select a date.
Range of Dates - Use the calendar tools to select a From and to date range.
d. Select the date to resume. swap, or move the original meal plan. Then, click Next.
Resume
Swap
Move
e. (Applicable only if Other Reasons is selected) Select how to handle the overwritten service date/date range.
Swap or Discard Overwritten Planning - Select how to handle the overwritten service date/date range.
Discard any planning that will be overwritten - Removes the meal planning for the future date/date ranges.
Swap any planning that would be overwritten to mm/dd/yyyy-mm/dd/yyyy - Swaps the future date/date range with the original date/date range selected.
f. Review the details in the Ready to Move Dates window. If everything is correct, click Finish.
Resume
Swap
Move
You will see a series of processes run. If service has been canceled and not swapped, the original days of service will appear with the No Meals icon.Print - Print the Calendar View of your menu.
Date Range - Use the calendar tools to select a From and to date range.
Options - Select additional options to print.
Include Menus - Select the types of menus to print.
Include Recipes - Select recipe options to print.- Select the Meal Type by using the drop-down menu and choose the correct meal for which you are planning.
Select a date and click Edit Day or double-click in the cell to select/edit menus and recipes.
The
icon indicates that there are no meals planned for that day due to a No Service Day, Special Event, or cancellation due to Inclement Weather.Yellow background - Meal planning counts are not complete.
Green background - Meal planning counts have been planned.
No background - No meal planning counts have been planned.
Blue background - The current selected day (not to be confused with current operating day).
Menus in black text have meal counts planned.
Menus in grey text have had no meal counts planned.
The calendar view indicates Daily Alerts.
Indicates a Daily Alert message exists. The calendar view indicates production Serve Type.
Indicates the meal has High Participation expected. 
Indicates the meal has Low Participation expected. The calendar view indicates production status.
Meal has been produced 
Meal has been partially produced 
Meal has not been produced
Use the drop-down menu to select the meal serve type from the list.
- Normal - Selected for everyday operation and the default option if recipes exist.
- Low Participation - Selected when meal participation is low such as upcoming holiday periods and the end of the school year.
- High Participation - Selected when meal participation is high - typically on days a popular meal is being prepared.
- No Meals - Selected if a meal will not be served (school holiday).
- Inclement Weather - Select if service has been canceled due to inclement weather (snow storm, hurricane, etc.).
- Special Event -- No Meals - Select if service will not occur due to a special event.
Enter estimated meal counts for each menu and serving group. You may collapse/expand each recipe by clicking the
(expansion arrow). This will allow you to view one menu at a time to simplify the screen, focus on one menu at a time, and adjust extra servings for items (such as à la carte sales).
In some cases, one menu component may be less/more popular than another. If your District used offer vs. serve (for example), these numbers may be adjusted depending on allowed permissions.Meal counts assist in determining which items need to be ordered.
Meal counts highlighted in red indicate that recipes have not been mapped for the menu count type; therefore, counts cannot be established for those grades, adults, employees, etc.
*The Apr 5, 2016 K-8 and Apr 5, 2016 EC K-8 menus are collapsed.
** Total counts for the All American Choice K-5 menu (All-Beef Hot Dog and Cheeseburger) equal 270.
Clone Menu Counts
Cloning Menu Counts allows you to duplicate the planned counts for future meals.
- Select the menu in which you wish to clone menu counts. Then, click Clone Menu Counts.
- Establish Clone Menu Planning Counts options. Then, click Ok.
Date Range to Clone to - Use the calendar tool to select a From and to date range.
Options - Overwrite Manual Planning - Overwrites any existing planned menu counts which have already been established.
The progress bar will appear as menus are cloned. Repeat the process to clone additional menu counts.
Daily Alert
Daily Alerts are established by the Central Office at the Menu Template level. They provide alerts for cafeteria managers on certain days. If a Daily Alert exists, it will be highlighted with a flashing exclamation mark icon.
- Click on Daily Alert.
- Read the alert. Then, click Ok to close the window.
Add a Menu or Recipe
- Click the Add button to add a menu or recipe to an existing menu item.
- If a menu or recipe is selected when clicking the Add button, you will be prompted to choose between adding a new menu or adding a recipe to one of the existing menus. Make your selection. Then, click Ok.
- Use the Search box to locate and select a single menu or one or more recipes by placing a checkmark in the correct box(es). Then, click Ok.
Assign MealViewer Display Groups
Assigning a MealViewer Display Group will designate which digital displays will show each recipe.
You will first need to create MealViewer Menu Groups and then create and map them to MealViewer Display Groups.
Select the checkboxes to assign each Menu/Recipe to a MealViewer Display Group. You may also select the Hidden From MV checkbox to ensure select recipes do not show up on Digital Displays.
You may also select Hide Display Groups to ignore these checkboxes and remove them from this screen completely.
Remove an Item, Recipe, or Menu
You can remove an item, recipe, or menu by selecting the item, recipe, or menu and clicking Remove.
Once you are done adding/removing items/menus, establishing menu counts, and cloning menu counts. Click Ok.
Print/Export Daily Menu Counts
You may choose to export daily menu counts for review purposes.
- From the Home tab, select Meal Planning.
- Select a date from the calendar, then click Edit Day.
- Right-click in the grid and select Print Grid or Export Grid Data.
Print Grid
Export Grid Data- Select a local or network file location, enter a filename, and click Save.
- You may open the file once it is saved to view or print the daily meal planning counts.
- Select a local or network file location, enter a filename, and click Save.
Expand All / Collapse All
You may choose to expand all rows to review or plan Extra Servings for a serving day. You may also collapse all menus and recipes once you are done.
- From the Home tab, select Meal Planning.
- Select a date from the calendar, then click Edit Day.
- Right-click in the grid and select Expand All or Collapse All.
Mark as Normal Recipe/Mark as Leftover Recipe
Mark as Normal Recipe and Mark as Leftover Recipe are typically used in conjunction with MealViewer. However, it may be used for other purposes.
Mark as Normal Recipe
If a Leftover Recipe has been been added during the Production process on a day where that recipe was not initally planned, the recipe will appear on the serving plan as Leftover: <Recipe Description>. Recipes marked as Leftovers will not be synced with MealViewer. If you would like for a leftover recipe to appear in MealViewer, right-click on the selected recipe and select Mark as Normal Recipe.
Mark as Leftover Recipe
If a Recipe (unplanned/leftover) has been been added during the Planning process, it will be synced with MealViewer. If you would not like a recipe to appear in MealViewer, right-click on the selected recipe and select Mark as Leftover Recipe.