Meals Plus Monthly E-Newsletter - January 2014

New!!! POS+ for Serving Supper

Meals Plus POS+ is a new module built for schools participating in the USDA's Child and Adult Care Food Program. The program has the functionality that you've come to expect from Meals Plus Point of Sale, while maintaining its reputation for being easy to learn and use. POS+ meets all of the USDA Accuclaim guidelines and offers an array of reports to meet accountability requirements.

POS+ is available now; contact your sales representative for more information!

Your Third Sneak Peek of "The Five P's of Promoting Your Child Nutrition Program"

Meals Plus is dedicated to being a resource for K-12 child nutrition departments across the country, which is why we publish free, downloadable white papers that help you manage the business of school nutrition. Our next white paper explores the five principles of promoting your child nutrition department and will be available for download this winter. We have previously shared not one, but two sneak peeks of "The Five P's of Promoting Your Child Nutrition Program: Product, Placement, Promotion, Price and People," and have one more sneak peek for you before it will officially be available for download!

Connie Little, Supervisor of School Nutrition at Beavercreek School District in Beavercreek, Ohio is thinking outside the box. She has started a "Monday Madness" promotion, where students that purchase a reimbursable meal receive a free treat. The meal and the treat still meet the nutritional requirements, and she is thinking about expanding to other days of the week to increase participation. Connie has also begun special theme days and weeks that teaches children where food comes from. For example, the district celebrated Earth Day with a twist. Children were saturated with information, prizes and treats related to dairy products. A cow visited each school through a partnership with the Farm Bureau; a video from a dairy farm was streamed into elementary classes; and fun facts about milk were shared during morning announcements.

Keep an eye on our blog to know when you can officially download "The Five P's" and in the meantime, check out our other free resources on our website. Topics include financial management of your program, tips to speed up your lunchlines, and best practices for managing your school cafeterias' inventory.

Play the Matching Game with Meals Plus

With its new update, Meals Plus' Direct Certification (DC) and Household Matching Tool makes matching and importing DC files easy! Students in the same household can now be easily grouped to the same application so they can receive the same benefits. The DC and Household Matching Tool's simplicity will cut down on manual labor, resulting in a reduction in manual labor cost, saving time, money, and stress!

Contact us today for more information.

Get to the Point with Meals Plus
Point Of Sale Software

Meals Plus Point of Sale software is designed to be fast, flexible, and easy to use! Our school cafeteria point of sale system was built specifically for school cafeterias, and consists only of features used in K-12 school cafeterias. The system's features include prohibiting items from students with dietary restrictions or food allergies, speedy serving by classrooms and custom groups, working on offline mode when the network connectivity is interrupted, and much more!

Call 1-800-541-8999 or email us for more information!

Meals Plus is a PowerSchool Partner

Meals Plus now offers a PowerSchool integration tool for our Point of Sale software, giving Meals Plus and PowerSchool customers more functionality and control over their student data management.

With the PowerSchool Connector, it will be easier to bring accurate data into Meals Plus Point of Sale on a timely basis, therefore decreasing manual data management and increasing productivity. Seamless, automated data exchange will reduce, if not eliminate, many of the hassles associated with managing the flow of import data. This allows you to reduce manual hours and get back to the important work – feeding your students!

Contact us today for more information.

Meet the Team: Ira

Get to know the Meals Plus Team! Ira Menard is a member of our fantastic support team who is determined to ensure the best customer support for Meals Plus' cafeteria management system.

The Dish: How long have you been at Meals Plus?
Ira: I have been here since February 2013.

TD: What duties and responsibilities does your position entail?
I: I am part of an excellent team that provides support and training for our customers. I work on answering questions, solving problems and guiding customers to the portions of the software that will help them manage their cafeterias most effectively.

TD: What aspects of your position do you enjoy the most?
I: I really enjoy talking to a wide range of people on a daily basis and our customers are always friendly! I also enjoy solving problems and sharing information about our software.

TD: What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
I: I really like to go to the movies. There's nothing like movie theater popcorn and a good movie.

TD: What was your favorite lunch when you were in school?
I: I always loved the once-a-year Thanksgiving lunches at my school!

Visit our blog to meet the rest of the Meals Plus Team!

School Nutrition Conferences

We are spreading the word on how Meals Plus makes managing your school's students, staff, menus, finances and inventory easier. Come see us at the following conferences:

Components

- Point of Sale
- Free & Reduced
- Online Services
- PowerSchool
  Connector
- Inventory
- Menu Planning
- Nutrient Analysis
- Accountability
- Financial
- Time Clock
- Fixed Assets

Free Resources

Fiscal Survival 101: Financial Success in the Era of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act

Keeping the Lunchline Moving: Tips to Increase the Speed of Your Lunchlines

Managing the Money on the Pantry Shelves: Inventory Management for Your Child Nutrition Program