PrimeroEdge launches school nutrition community portal – SchoolCafé

HOUSTON - Aug. 3, 2016 - PRLog -- PrimeroEdge, the leader in school nutrition software, has unveiled its newest solution for connecting school nutrition departments with parents and students – SchoolCafé. The all-new SchoolCafé solution is accessible on any desktop, laptop or mobile device. This web/mobile app connects families to all aspects of school nutrition, including menus, nutrition, payments and meal eligibility. SchoolCafé was designed to build a community by increasing engagement and involvement in school nutrition programs.

Many districts utilize several different platforms for managing online menu publishing, account payments and free and reduced applications. SchoolCafé simplifies this process by providing a unified platform for all parent and student communication.

"While managing three different solutions for payments, menus and student eligibility may work for some districts," said Dallas Taras, Product Manager at PrimeroEdge, "it's a marketing nightmare. Parents have to remember three separate URLs and login information for three different platforms. We wanted to provide a single platform where users could have access to all areas of school nutrition."

Parents may utilize SchoolCafé to view menus as well as the nutritional content and related allergens of the foods served in their child's cafeteria. Each menu item displays calorie count, sugar and sodium content, and more. Parents will also have access to their child's payment account, with low balance alerts being sent directly to their mobile devices via push notifications. Finally, parents utilizing SchoolCafé can submit free and reduced meal applications, view past applications and receive notifications on their eligibility status.

PrimeroEdge previously offered two portals for parents – ParentOnline for meal accounts and payments, and SchoolMealApp for online free and reduced meal applications. While retaining all parent functionality, the all-new SchoolCafé offers exciting new features to students. In addition to viewing upcoming menus, students will now be able to rate, favorite and share the foods they eat on social media. With added rating and social sharing capabilities, students will be able to engage with their school nutrition program like never before.  School nutrition departments will be able to collect the data from these ratings and shares to properly assess which food items and recipes are the most popular for their program.

With SchoolCafé's new "Make a Tray" feature, students may build out a virtual tray by selecting the foods they would like to eat. Nutritional information for the entire meal is displayed, providing students and parents valuable education on healthy eating, as well as which food groups make up a reimbursable meal.

"Interactive and customizable meals on a platform that is easily accessible to the grade school generation offers much promise to help students engage in nutrition education," said Rebecca Kenefic, SNS, Dietetic Supervisor at Spring Branch Independent School District.

All school systems currently utilizing ParentOnline for payments will be converted to the new SchoolCafé platform. Several districts began publishing menus and nutrition on August 1, the day the new platform went live. Hundreds of districts are expected to make all three features available to their communities during the course of the year.

For more information about SchoolCafé, please visit http://primeroedge.com/SchoolCafé (http://primeroedge.com/schoolcafe/) or contact:


Solutions@PrimeroEdge.com
1-866-510-2525


About PrimeroEdge
PrimeroEdge is the industry leading provider of software solutions for school nutrition departments in State agencies and K-12 school districts across the country. PrimeroEdge is a comprehensive and integrated management solution that includes Point of Service, Student Eligibility, Direct Certification, Online Applications, SchoolCafé, Verification, Menu Planning, Nutrient Analysis, Production Records, Administrative Reviews, Program Applications, Reimbursement Claims, Professional Standards, ParentOnline, Food Distribution, Inventory, and Financials. For more information, visit http://primeroedge.com.