Providers can document student meals in brightwheel for family visibility and for Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) reimbursements. Pre-set menus make logging meals and snacks faster by allowing staff to select foods from a pre-built list during meal times.
ℹ️ Providers participating in CACFP should confirm that each student’s Meal Type is set to either Free, Reduced, or Paid prior to meal logging to avoid reporting discrepancies.
Log student meals & food activity
When logging a meal, staff can manually add food items or quickly select from the day’s preset menu, if available for the room. Setting up menus helps staff log meals faster without searching for individual items.
When logging a student meal, you can also record the
Food type (solid or bottle)
Amount consumed (All, Most, Some, None, or bottle ounces)
Meal type (Breakfast, AM/PM/Late Snack, Lunch, Dinner)
💡 Tip: Ensure the student is checked into the correct room so the meal appears accurately on the Meal Report.
On the App
Log in on the app and open a room
💡 Admins: Hit Rooms | Staff: Select from the top room dropdownTap Add Activity > Food
Select a student then add meal details
Select Meal Items + or Quick add meal items for today (if a menu is set up for that meal) to record what the child ate
Tap Add Activity
On the web
Log in on the web
Open the room's or child's activity feed
Click Add Activity > Food
Add meal details and select Meal items to record what the child ate
Tap Add food
Quickly log food items from preset menus
When logging meals that students have eaten, staff can quickly add pre-populated food items from menus created in brightwheel. This helps save time and ensures meals are accurately tracked for CACFP reporting.
To add pre-populated meal items, select the Meal Type, then tap Quick add [meal name] items for today while logging a food activity. This will automatically add the food items assigned to that meal for the selected day.
Note: If you are recording a food item that isn’t listed in the preset menu for the day (for example, if a child brings food from home), tap Meal Items + to quickly add it. Foods added this way won’t be saved to the official Food item library, but they will still count in meal reports.