MARIA SPITALE
For those parents who find it hard to get creative with their
kids’ lunches, there is a new tool available that you won’t find in
your kitchen that will help get the job done faster.
A North Vancouver entrepreneur has made it possible for schools
to put together delicious noontime meals in
five minutes.
“Every parent breathes a big sigh when it comes to making
lunches,” says Barbara Talbot, founder of MunchaLunch, an online hot
lunch ordering system for elementary, middle and high school students. “I
think we all look forward to a break from it.”
If your child’s school is a participating member of the program,
you can simply visit your school’s website and find the link for
MunchaLunch.
Schools decide which local food suppliers they wish to use, and
put the menus and pricing online for ordering. Schools usually offer
plenty of choices including wraps, sandwiches, pizza, hamburgers,
and pasta. There are also healthy snacks and drinks that can be
offered to supplement these meals such as oatmeal cookies, fruit
salad, and milk.
“There are easy steps to follow,” advises Talbot. “Register an account,
add your children, and begin ordering.”
To help schools even more, there is a Fundraising module included in the
program which enables schools to set up everything from online donations
to spring plants for sale.
“Proceeds from lunch programs go directly back to the school PAC
to help fund much-needed school programs and equipment,” explains
Talbot. “Munch helps schools maximize these proceeds.”
Traditionally, school lunch programs are paper-based
systems that are labour intensive for both the school lunch
coordinators and the parents themselves, says Talbot.
“Ordering and paying online eliminates the need for paper order forms and
avoids calculation errors,” she said. “Instead of lunch coordinators
spending hours with paper forms, they can now generate all reports
at the click of a button.”
There are currently over 700 schools from across Canada on board with
MunchaLunch. According to Talbot, the plan is to attract even more schools
to the program to make school lunch programs and fundraising easy and seamless
to administer!
For more information on MunchaLunch, visit munchalunch.com or
call 604-288-2446.