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Food Tracking
Food Tracking

Add a custom menu, log meals, and run your meal and menu reports to easily collect necessary data for CACFP reporting.

Sabrina avatar
Written by Sabrina
Updated over a week ago

As part of the Activity section of brightwheel, you can create custom menu items for tracking purposes! This resource will walk you through how to create custom items, enable/disable menu items in rooms, and touch on reporting options as well.

Assign Student Meal Type

Before logging a meal, assign each student a Meal Type within the School Details Panel on the student profile. Options are Not Specified, Free, Reduced, or Paid. Meal Types will appear next to student data on the Meal Report.

Logging Food Activities on the App

  1. If logging in as an Administrator or Manager, tap Rooms. If logging in as a Lead Staff or Staff member, use the rooms drop-down at the top of the page to open the correct room.

    💡Be sure the student is checked in to the room you are logging a meal in to ensure records appear on the Meal Report

  2. Once in the appropriate room, tap Add Activity

  3. Select Food

  4. Select an individual, some, or all of the students

  5. Adjust the Time as needed

  6. Tap Food or Bottle

    1. If tapping Food, tap All, Most, Some, or None to reflect how much of the meal was consumed

    2. If tapping Bottle, input the ounces drank

  7. Select the Type of Meal (Breakfast, AM Snack, Lunch, PM Snack, Dinner, Late Snack)

  8. Tap the + next to 'Meal Items' to add custom tags or pre-populated meal items for the food you serve

  9. Check the 'Staff Only' box as needed

  10. Add an optional note or attach a photo

  11. Click Add Activity when finished

Logging Food Activities on the Web

  1. Click to expand My School

  2. Activities can be logged from the room, or an individual student feed

    1. If adding from the room feed, click the Room tab > select a room

    2. If adding directly from the student profile > click the Feed tab

  3. Click the + Add Activity button

  4. Select Food

  5. Use the Student field to select an individual, some, or all students

  6. Adjust the Time as needed

  7. Tap Food or Bottle

    1. If tapping Food, tap All, Most, Some, or None to reflect how much of the meal was consumed

    2. If tapping Bottle, input the ounces drank

  8. Select the Type of Meal (Breakfast, AM Snack, Lunch, PM Snack, Dinner, Late Snack)

  9. Select 'Meal Items' to add custom tags or pre-populated meal items for the food you serve

  10. Add an optional note or attach a photo

  11. Choose whether to check the Staff Only box or not
    💡This is not selected by default and is up to each program what activities should or shouldn't be shared to the student's feed. Learn more about this option here.

  12. When ready, click Add Food

Quick-Add Meal Items From Menus

Any staff member assigned to a given Room can add easily add pre-populated meal items from the menus you've created in brightwheel. This also ensures children's meal items are accurately tracked for CACFP reporting.

To add pre-populated meal items, staff can simply tap the Quick add [meal name] items for today? button shown below when they are logging a food activity for their Room.

Add Custom Menu Items

Custom food items can be added at any time from the web or app!  Once a menu item has been created, it cannot be deleted.  In addition, all menu items are specific to the room. To add a menu item that another room added, tap + to Room when adding custom food items.  

Add Custom Menu Items on the App

  1. If logging in as an Administrator or Manager, tap Rooms. If logging in as a Lead Staff or Staff member, use the rooms drop-down at the top of the page to open the correct room.

  2. Once in the appropriate room, tap Add Activity

  3. Select Food

  4. Select an individual, some, or all of the students

  5. Click Next

  6. Tap the + next to 'Meal Items'

  7. Click the Edit option in the top right corner

  8. Use the search bar and type in your new food item

  9. Tap the green Add 'FOOD' button

  10. Once added, this food item will permanently be in your system to select

Add Custom Menu Items on the Web

Custom menu items can be added directly from the menu you create on the web. Please visit our Menu Planning Help Center resource for steps on adding a custom menu item from this location. Items added here will be selectable in the room the menu is assigned to.

Please Note: Menu items cannot be deleted once they have been saved!

Enable/Disable Menu Items in Rooms

Once you have created custom menu items, you can enable or disable them by room! The process is very similar to adding a new item. Here's how:

  1. If logging in as an Administrator or Manager, tap Rooms. If logging in as a Lead Staff or Staff member, use the rooms drop-down at the top of the page to open the correct room.

  2. Once in the appropriate room, tap Add Activity

  3. Tap Food

  4. Select an individual, some, or all of the students

  5. Tap the + next to 'Meal Items'

  6. Tap the Edit option in the top right corner

  7. Tap the + to Room option to add the food item to the room or the ✓ In Room to disable the item

This feature allows the menu in each room to be customized depending on the room but still standardized throughout your organization!

Reporting

Admins and Managers can easily pull reporting on planned menus and meals served at your program from your account on the web. Learn more about our Meal Report and our Menu Report.

These reports are a great resource when you need to collect necessary data to ensure that your school or center complies with the CACFP (Child and Adult Care Food Program) federal program that provides reimbursement for healthful meals and snacks served to children and adults.

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