CNCentral allows menu planners the ability to adjust the operating days from the Menu Calendar or the Base Menu so that menu planners can account for non-operational days for compliance purposes. Non-operational days are considered days that the meal program is not feeding children due to planned holiday, unplanned snow days, etc.
If a school(s) regularly has a non-traditional week (a school week that doesn't run Monday through Friday) then this should be accounted for on the Base Menu when base menus are being created. Instructions for setting the operating days from the Base Menus and Menu Calendar are below. This ensures that the week copies out correctly and as intended into the Menu Calendar which has all production information such as the production record. If a school(s) has a non-reoccurring holiday or a non-reoccurring unexpected day off such as a snow day, this should be accounted for on the Menu Calendar. The Menu Calendar is intended to be used for the day to day operations so holidays and other non-reoccurring days should be accounted for here.
When the Menu Planner adjusts the operating days, CNCentral's daily and weekly compliance calculations adjust accordingly following USDA's rules for a short or long school week. USDA's guidelines can be found in the link below. Once you get down to a 2 day school week, there is no weekly minimums or averages provided in USDA's guidance and CNCentral will stop analyzing for weekly compliance in the Weekly Summary tab. Compliance will appear as flagged but no minimums will be listed and data will appear as Missing. Daily compliance will still be calculated for operational days as normal.
To set Operational Days when creating a Base Menu:
- From the Base Menus database, click the blue plus sign button on the bottom right side of your screen
- Fill in the required information and select/deselect the days of the week as necessary (days with a check mark are active and operational)
- Click the Create button to create the Base Menu with the desired operating days
To edit/set Operational Days when creating a menu from the Menu Calendar:
- From the Menu Calendar, click the blue plus sign button in line with the desired week and fill in the required information
- Click the edit icon (
) from the top right hand side of the Menu Worksheet screen - From the flyout window, select/deselect the days of the week as necessary (days with a check mark are active and operational)
- Click the Save button to save the changes to your weekly menu
Note: if items or recipes appear on the Menu Worksheet for a day that you're deselecting as an Operational Day, those items and recipes will be deleted and will not be recoverable.
Non-Operational Days will be grayed out and will not be clickable as shown below:
USDA's guidance for Short and Long Week Calculations:
https://www.fns.usda.gov/cn/short-and-long-week-calculations