This report provides meal service metrics for the School Year Program.
This article covers the following topics:
- Additional steps following basic setup
- Table overview
- Export options
- Efficiency and Timeliness of Report Generation
Additional steps following basic setup
Please see Report Setup Foundations for all reports' basic setup steps.
Additional steps:
- After completing the Report Setup Foundation you will need to select the Meal Types you would like to include on the report.
- Participant Types you want to include in the report (Adults, Children, Non-Program Adult, etc.).
- You will also need to indicate which Program Types you want to include data for.
- Click Create Report at the bottom, your report will be found in your Report Inbox on the left-hand side of the screen under Reports. Alternatively, you can hit Save Template if you want to save this as a template for future use. More on templates can be found here.
Table overview
Table and Query Definitions
The report is separated by meal type to help prepare the state report. Each meal type will have a total row at the bottom of the data set.
- Site ID: Custom ID of the organization. This can be set in the Agency Settings.
- Organization: Name of the organization. A row for each organization will appear in the report.
- Meals Carried Over: Meals that have been carried over from the previous meal service.
- Total Attendance: Total Number of people in attendance for this meal type. Note: This will only appear if your organization tracks attendance.
- Average Attendance: The average number of people in attendance for this meal type during the reporting period. Note: This will only appear if your organization tracks attendance.
- Delivered: Total number meals delivered during this reporting period for this meal type. Note: This will only appear if your organization tracks the number of meals received.
- First Meals: Total number of first meals served during this reporting period for this meal type.
- *% First Meals: First meals/meals delivered x 100= % of meals delivered that were served as first meals during this reporting period for this meal type.
- Second Meals: Total number of second meals served during this reporting period for this meal type.
- Third Meals: Total number of third meals served during this reporting period for this meal type.
- Total Served: Total number of meals that were served in the reporting period for this meal type. This is calculated by adding all first meals for this meal type plus all second meals for this meal type plus all third meals (if tracked) for this meal type.
- Unique Individuals: The unique number of children served for this meal type during the reporting period. Each child is counted only once regardless of the number of meals for this meal type received.
- Average Daily Served: The average number of people served for this meal type during the reporting period. Most state reports will use the number found in the total rows at the bottom of each report section, but a calculation is provided for each organization Note: This total is not a sum of the average daily served for all agencies, but the actual average number of people served across all agencies for this meal type.
- Max # of Meals: Highest number of total meals recorded for this meal type on an individual day in the reporting period. Also can be considered a "One Day High" of all meals for some state and national reports.
- Max # of First Meals: Highest number of first meals recorded for this meal type on an individual day in the reporting period. Also can be considered "One Day High" of first meals.
- Total Damaged/Incomplete/Non-reimbursable: This is the total amount of meals that were tracked as damaged, incomplete or non-reimbursable.
- First Meal Waste: This number is calculated by subtracting the total first meals served from the total meals delivered. Note: This will only appear if your organization tracks the number of meals received.
- Total Waste: This number is calculated by subtracting the total meals served from the total meals delivered. Note: This will only appear if your organization tracks the number of meals received.
- # of Days Served: Number of unique calendar days this meal type was served Note: This total is not a sum of the number of unique days served by agency, but the total number of unique calendar days this meal type was served by any agency.
- Sites that Served Meals: Count of organizations that served meals during the reporting period.
- Additional Meals: The number of meals served after the meal service ended. Note: This will only appear if your organization tracks additional meals served after a meal service ends. This does not include additional participants requesting meals.
- Meals Carried Forward: The total number of meals that are eligible to be carried over to the following day. Note: This will only appear if your organization tracks eligible carryover meals.
- Formula= First Meals Served/Total Delivered
- This section is usually used to answer the question "Are the meals we are delivering turning into reimbursable meals" and not "How many meals consumed were first meals"
- This total is accurate when counting over multiple meal services/over longer periods of time so you can get an idea of the count of reimbursable meals (doesn't double count any meals that were carried forward)
- The number could be confusing when looking at just one meal service (would make % seem higher because not counting carried-over meals)
Export options
- Click on the Export button to download the report as a CSV file to open in Excel.
- Click on the Print View button to see the printer-friendly version of the report.
Efficiency and Timeliness of Report Generation
In our report generation process, we understand the significance of minimizing wait times for our users. Currently, the wait time is determined by the number of organizations included in the report and the duration covered. Let's delve into the details of our report queues for a clearer understanding.
We manage two queues: one for regular reports and another for large reports. We allow up to 20 reports to run simultaneously. This setup enables concurrent processing of multiple reports but may result in a slightly extended initial wait time to ensure efficiency.
Report size is determined by multiplying the number of sites by the duration in days, with a limit set at 50 sites x 180 days (equivalent to 9000). Anything exceeding this threshold is directed to the large queue.
Recognizing the complexity and scale of large reports, they are processed in a separate queue, occasionally resulting in wait times measured in hours. We understand the inconvenience and are actively working towards optimizing processing times for such reports in the future.
Conversely, our regular queue processes reports efficiently with a minimum wait time of 6 minutes per report. Multiple reports can run simultaneously, minimizing overall slowdowns. However, there are instances where regular reports may take longer, ranging from 20 to 30 minutes each. It's essential to note that even a quick report may experience delays if queued behind longer reports.
As we strive to optimize report processing times, your feedback is crucial. Please feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions, these contribute to our ongoing efforts to enhance and streamline this process for an improved user experience.