The paper-based lunch menu system is a thing of the past for the Mid-Prairie School District.
It has implemented the My School Menus online program which gives students a few options to choose from for their lunch. Mid Prairie School District Nutrition Director Cory Evans shares how the old menu system pales in comparison, “The previous system was a paper-based system where it was kind of confusing things. I’m a technology person so I like everything technologically advanced type stuff. So having digital and things that way to track stuff that way, the old system which is like paper menus handwritten, took a lot more time, effort. There is a lot of room for error. Bringing in this computer system that we did bring in, opens lots of options up.”

As he enters food items with serving sizes and recipes the program tells Evans whether he’s compliant with USDA standards, “The general public can actually view our menus just by going to myschoolmenus.com and selecting Mid Prairie School District. But they can actually look to see what’s on the menu each day, it’s interactive so there’s actually a picture of what the food might kind of look like or something just to kind of an enticing thing. Get the nutritional breakdown. It lists all the allergies online, you can pretty much access everything for the whole month of menus. You can actually build like your menu and have a full calorie count or carb count for what you’re planning to eat for that day. That works for both breakfast and lunch.”

Evans shared with KCII News that there were a few bugs to be worked out at first but as a whole feedback has been good. He adds that students, parents and staff can also leave reviews on the mobile app.

You can hear more about the new nutrition system during a JJ Nichting Company in Touch with Southeast Iowa program at kciiradio.com.