Meals Plus News You Can Use

Students appearing on your MARSS Error report with warning #364, if you find the address listed for the student was a previous address (even if it was in another town) but that the student did reside at that address and the parent/guardian listed is correct for the student, then the student may be marked free in MARSS.  DHS addresses can be from a year ago so they may be different.

As most of you know, USDA guidelines require mandatory direct certification for all children in food stamp households.The following files are needed to match your students to the information provided by the state.A current student file with: Student Number Case Number Student Last Name Student First Name Address1 Address3 Parent Last NameA file from MDE with students that should be processed as direct certified is best.Step 1 – Import Direct Cert file from MDE in .txt format: Log into Meal...

 Help prevent serving on incorrect days by restricting the ability to Change the Serving Date in the Serve screen. Actual Date is when a transaction is actually entered. Effective Date is the date chosen in the Serve screen. Ensure the Date/Time of each computer is correct as Offline Transactions cannot use the Date/Time from the Server.Accountability:• The Non-Participating Students report is a great tool to see students currently not participating in Breakfast or Lunch.&bul...

Meals Plus recommends running the “Delete Non-Current Students” function approximately 3 months after the start of a new school year.To access the Delete Non-Current Student option, a Meals Plus Administrator simply logs into System Management, selects the Administration menu, and “Delete Non-Current Students.”Meals Plus will display a list of all students (status 2-5) who meet the following criteria: No Point of Sale meal history or transactions in the cur...

General  Verify all cafeteria computers can log into Meals Plus.  Verify all External Hardware is operational.  System Management  Review Security: User Setup—add new cashiers/users, assign sites & items as needed.  Point of Sale  Review/edit Attendance Factor in Control File.  Review/update Item Setup: Prices, State Reimbursable items and Assigned Users.  Review/update Site Setup: Other Configurations: Default charges.  ...

Processing -> Manage ApplicationDon’t forget about Archived Applications when you are processing new apps for the 19-20 school year!You can copy a family’s archived application to the New Year and update it to save time! 

Administration -> Letter SetupThis screen allows you to customize your Student Eligibility letters.  Select Modify an existing template to open a letter previously saved Click Next. It will open in a screen similar to a word processor. The ampersands (&) in the letter text indicate where it will insert information from the database. The dollar signs [$] in some of the Verification Results letters are place holders where you need to enter meal prices...

The issue: A school district wanted to give the ability to alert their cashiers when a student went through the line and had a low balance.The fix: The school district was not using the Allergens feature in Meals Plus, so Region 1 created a ‘Low Balance’ allergen and assigns it automatically to a student when they qualify as having a low balance. In this school district’s case, full paid students with a balance below $5.00. They also turned off the option that Cashiers MUST con...