Parents of students in the Allen County School District are reminded of a way to check what’s for breakfast and lunch at each school in the district. The Meal Viewer App is available for download onto smart phones and tablets---providing parents instant access to daily menus for their children.
The Meal Viewer app---funded through a three-year grant from Meal Viewer using funds provided by the Healthy Family Initiative--- is designed to be a resource parents can use every day.
“Apps are the going thing,” explained Allen County Schools Food Services Director Mary Hobdy. “The Meal Viewer app is right there on your phone or tablet. Parents can use this the night before to see what’s for breakfast or lunch. I think we are going in the right direction. This is the next step in communicating with families what we are serving”.
Hobdy learned about Meal Viewer in a meeting at GRREC (Green River Regional Education Cooperative) in the fall of 2015. More information was obtained later in 2015. Last spring, the App was made available to parents and students in the District.
Using the free Meal Viewer App is simple. The app can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play in a matter of minutes. Once installed, the user will be asked to enter the name of the school district, specific school, or city in which the school is located. Users may also select “favorite” schools which will allow the app to open to that school---making for even quicker access to menus.
Once a school is selected, the Meal View App allows users to see the complete breakfast and lunch menus for the day. The display will show the complete menu items---the main entrees and drink. Each item listed also has calories, sodium, and saturated fat levels included---the three items that the district is required to track with each meal. To see another date, users can click to view the menu for that specific day. Parents can view menus for 30 days at a time.
The handy tool is designed for easy use by parents and students. Not only can parents check the menu daily or weekly, students with smart phones can also check to see what’s being served and indicate favorites.
“If the kids like an item, they can star it”, added Food Services assistant Robin Herrington. “Food Services will monitor favorite choices and this will help to determine foods of choice for future menus”.
The Food Services Page at the district’s website (www.allen.kyschools.us) has more information about Meal Viewer. A link to instructions on downloading the App is available plus a web version that is available for families to view.