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Weekly menu email and meal messages to parents

Each week, on the day you choose, plan members and their parents get the next week's menu by email. A short note goes on WhatsApp and in the app. Where the outlet switches it on, parents also hear each time their child is served a meal.
PLANSFrom Growth
Compare plansHow it works

The problem it solves

  • Parents ask the school office every week what the children will eat.
  • The menu is pinned on the mess notice board, where day scholars' parents never see it.
  • A parent pays for a monthly plan and has no idea whether the child had lunch.
  • The warden forwards a photo of the menu to five WhatsApp groups every Saturday.

How it works

  1. Open the outlet, tab Menus. Tick Share the Weekly Menu and choose the weekday in Send on. Saturday is the starting choice.
  2. On a child's contact, tab Food Service, fill in Menu Sent to with the parents. With SmartMy Campus, the student's parents are filled in by themselves.
  3. On that weekday the published menus of the next week, Monday to Sunday, go to the outlet's plan members and their menu contacts. Share Next Week Now sends it at once.
  4. The email shows each day and session with its dishes, and Not served with the reason on a closed day. WhatsApp and the app carry a short note that the menu is out.
  5. To tell parents of each meal, tick Tell Parents When a Meal Is Served on the same tab.
  6. Each time the child is served a plan or token meal, the parents get a line such as: Riya had Lunch at Main Mess (13:05).

Everything it does

The weekly menu

  • Share the Weekly Menu per outlet: off to start with; Send on: Monday to Sunday, Saturday to start with
  • Sends the published daily menus of the coming Monday to Sunday
  • Goes to the members with an active meal plan sold at the outlet during that week, and to each member's menu contacts
  • For information only: nobody has to confirm it
  • Once per outlet and week; Share Next Week Now sends the next week at once
  • Weekly Menus Shared lists each week: when it was sent, the number of menus and who it went to. Not Published names the days and sessions with no published menu

Meal messages to parents

  • Tell Parents When a Meal Is Served per outlet: off to start with
  • Sent for each plan or token meal served, to the person's menu contacts
  • The message names the child, the session, the outlet and the time served
  • It does not say what was eaten, what was paid or the wallet balance
  • Items bought and paid for at the counter do not send a meal message

Children's data: who sees what

  • Only the people named in Menu Sent to receive a child's meal messages
  • The weekly menu carries the outlet's menu only, nothing about the child
  • The same menu contacts can open the child's page on the portal and in the app: meals taken, wallet and limits (see Parents' accounts)
  • Food Administrators and Kitchen Managers see Weekly Menus Shared, with the names it went to

Who uses it

Food AdministratorSwitches the weekly menu and the meal messages on per outlet, and sets the weekday.
Kitchen Manager / ChefPublishes the week's daily menus before the sending day, and checks Not Published.
Office staffFill in Menu Sent to on a child's contact when there is no SmartMy Campus link.
ParentReads the week's menu and the meal messages, and can switch either off for themselves.
Plan memberGets the weekly menu.

Where you use it

  • Web: the outlet's Menus tab (Share the Weekly Menu, Send on, Tell Parents When a Meal Is Served, Share Next Week Now). Food Service > Planning > Weekly Menus Shared. the contact's Food Service tab, Menu Sent to
  • Email: the weekly menu, day by day
  • WhatsApp: the weekly note and the meal messages, from your message credits
  • The SmartMy Feast app: both in the app's inbox. Built and in testing, not in the app stores yet. Push once the apps are in the stores
  • Not by SMS: neither the weekly menu nor the meal messages have an SMS
  • Not by email: the meal messages

What you control

Settings

  • Share the Weekly Menu: off; Send on: Saturday
  • Tell Parents When a Meal Is Served: off
  • Menu Sent to: per contact; filled in from SmartMy Campus for students
  • Quiet hours of the Entity: 21:00 to 07:00 to start with

Notifications

  • Weekly Menu: to the plan members and their menu contacts. By email with the menu, and a short note in the app and on WhatsApp. App push once the apps are in the stores. It waits for quiet hours, and each person can switch it off
  • Meal Served: to the child's menu contacts; in the app and on WhatsApp, app push once the apps are in the stores. It waits for quiet hours, so a dinner served after 21:00 is told the next morning, and a parent can switch it off

Works with

SmartMy CampusStudents' parents and guardians are made their menu contacts by themselves, so they get the weekly menu and the meal messages.

Questions

What if the kitchen has not published next week's menu by the sending day?

Days without a published menu are left out and listed under Not Published. Publish the menus before the sending day. A week is sent once, so plan the weekday after your menu is ready.

Do day scholars' parents get the weekly menu?

Only if the child has an active meal plan at the outlet. Customers who only pay per item or buy tokens are not sent the weekly menu.

Will a parent get a message for every snack?

A message goes for each plan or token meal served at an outlet where you switched the messages on. Items bought at the counter send none. A parent who finds it too much can switch it off.

Can a parent see what the child ate?

The message gives the meal, the outlet and the time. Bills and the wallet are on the child's page of the portal and the app.

Is this in the Starter plan?

No. The weekly menu and the meal messages come with Growth.

Related features

PORTAL AND APPSParents manage children's meals and limitsParents see each child's wallet, meals and bookings on the portal and in the SmartMy Feast app. They top up, book a meal, answer for the child, report allergies and set daily and weekly spending limits that the counter enforces.SET-UPRotating menu cycles and festival daysWrite a rotating menu once, for a week, a fortnight or any number of days, and the daily menus build themselves for each outlet. Mark festival menus, extra dishes and days when a meal is not served.SET-UPItems with diet, allergens and combos, and a fixed menuEach item carries its diet, allergens, calories and spice level, the outlets that sell it and its category. Give each session a fixed menu, mark tea and drinks as sold all day, and strike out a dish that ran out.SELLINGMeal plans with opt-outs and creditSell a meal plan for a day, a week, a month, a term or a year, covering the sessions and weekdays you choose. A member who says "not eating" before the cut-off gets that meal back as wallet credit, a refund at the end or an extra day. Joining late is charged only for the meals left.ACROSS SMARTMY FEASTNotificationsSmartMy Feast tells the right person when something happens. A diner hears when the wallet runs low or an order is ready, and a parent when a child eats. A manager when a diet changes, a storekeeper when stock runs short or batches expire. Work messages go out at once; menus and reminders wait for your quiet hours.PORTAL AND APPSSmartMy Feast app for dinersThe SmartMy Feast app for iPhone and Android holds the diner's QR card for the counter. It also has today's meals to answer, two weeks of menus, the wallet, bookings with their slips, meal plans and history. Parents switch between their children.

See it with your own menu.

Tell us how many outlets you run and how people pay today. We will show you a day in your mess or canteen on SmartMy Feast.
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