Offer vs Serve Reimbursable Meal Itemization in Newton

Owned by Former user (Deleted)
Mar 16, 2012
4 min read

What is Offer vs. Serve Reimbursable Meal Itemization?

Offer versus serve reimbursable meal itemization is a feature of Newton which allows the system to calculate whether or not individual alacarte items sold on the serving line constitute a reimbursable meal and automatically convert the transaction into a reimbursable meal.

Are the constituent items recorded when a meal is converted?

Yes. When alacarte items are converted into a reimbursable meal, the alacarte items are recorded as having been purchased with an item price of $0.00. A reimbursable meal item is automatically added to the transaction at the appropriate price based on the student's price category. Any given item purchased will be recorded with one of 3 OVS Purchase Types:

  1. None - This means the purchased item did not participate in an offer vs. serve (OVS) meal. For locations not using OVS Meal Itemization, all purchased items will have this type.
  2. Component - This alacarte item was used to form an OVS meal. The item price will always be $0.00 for this 2. OVS Purchase Type.
  3. Meal - This reimbursable meal item was automatically added to the transaction because other alacarte items constituted an OVS meal.

How does the system decide if items constitute a reimbursable meal?

Each menu has a particular OVS Menu Type. This value is used by the serving line to determine what constitutes a meal. There are 9 possible OVS Menu Type values:

  1.  None
  2.  Food-Based 4 Item Choices (Decline 1)
  3.  Food-Based 5 Item Choices (Decline 2)
  4.  Food-Based 4 Component Choices (Decline 1)
  5.  Food-Based 5 Component Choices (Decline 2)
  6.  NuMenus 1-1-1 (Decline 1)
  7.  NuMenus 1-2-1 (Decline 2)
  8.  NuMenus 1-3-1 (Decline 2)
  9.  NuMenus 1-4-1 (Decline 2)

The first option, None, means that the system will never automatically convert alacarte items into an OVS meal. The next four options use the rules for Food-Based menu planning. The final four options use rules for NuMenus planning. In both schemes, the item's OVS Item Type is considered before deciding how the item will participate in the OVS Meal Conversion. There are 5 possible OVS Item Types:

  1. None - The POS Item will not be used as a component of an OVS Meal.
  2. Entrée - The item can be used as a component, but at most one item of type Entrée may be used in a given meal
  3. Milk - The item can be used as a component, but at most one item of type Milk may be used in a given meal
  4. Side (only 1) - The item can be used as a component, but at most one of this particular item may be used in a given meal
  5. Side (2+) - The item can be used as a component with no restrictions 5. on quantity

Food-Based Menu Planning

When Food-Based menu planning is used, the system decides what constitutes a meal based on the food components in each item sold. There are 4 types of food components that a given item can provide.

  1.  Milk
  2.  Fruits / Vegetables
  3.  Meat / Meat Alternate
  4.  Grains / Breads

The food contributions of each item can be configured in POS Item Maintenance, using the meal component check boxes. Note there are two boxes for Fruits / Vegetables, Meat / Meat Alternate, and Grains / Breads. If both boxes for any one component are checked, that indicates that the item counts as two servings of that component. There are both 4-choice and 5-choice food based OVS Menu Types. The "4 choice" types allow up to 4 choices to be made by the student. The "5 choice" types allow up to 5 choices to be made by the student. Students may decline up to 1 choice on the "4 choice" menus, and they may decline up to 2 choices on the "5 choice" menus. In either case, they must have at least 3 choices. The only difference is whether to allow a maximum of 4 or 5 choices.

Finally, there are "Item Choices" or "Component Choices" variations. In "Item Choices" the total number of items sold must be 3, 4, or 5. In "Component Choices" the number of individual items purchased does not matter, but rather the total number of meal components must be 3, 4, or 5. In both variations, 3, 4, or 5 distinct menu components must be sold.

The rules for distinct menu components are different for breakfast and lunch. For breakfast, Grains / Breads, and Meat / Meat Alternate can be counted twice. For lunch, Fruits / Vegetables can be counted twice. For snack, each component may only be counted once, and the minimum number of distinct components is decreased to 2 instead of 3.

NuMenus Planning

When one of the NuMenus OVS Menu Types is used, the system decides what constitutes a meal based on the OVS Item Types of the items sold. The OVS Menu Types are listed as 1-N-1, where N represents the number of sides the student may choose. The 1's represent the number of entrées and milks that may be chosen, which are always 1. The student must choose exactly one entrée, but may decline either one or two other choices. For the "Decline 2" menu types, the student may decline up to two sides, or the milk and one side. For the "Decline 1" menu types, the student may decline either the milk or one side.

The food contribution check boxes are ignored when using NuMenus Planning.