Introducing the NutriSchool™ Menu and Nutritional Information System at CSNA 2012 California School Nutrition Conference

Epicure Digital Systems, a leader in digital menu boards, presents at CSNA 2012 California School Nutrition Conference, the Epicure Digital NutriSchool™ Menu and Nutritional Information System for centrally controlling menu and nutritional information on school websites, classroom smart boards, and digital menu boards in the cafeteria and around campus.

K-12 schools have just finished implementing the new revolutionary healthful menus and face these challenges:
Promote the new school menus:
Students need to learn the benefits of good nutrition to help them make healthier menu choices on a daily basis and as a way for life.

Meet the new regulations:
The Healthy, Hunger-Free Act of 2010, sections 204 and 209, requires schools to make information more readily available to students, parents and the public about the nutritional quality of meals.

Increase participation in the Breakfast and Lunch program:
School food services need fuller participation to sustain profit margins in the face of increased food costs as a result of new and modified meal recipes.

“With the new school meal standards beginning to be implemented and the growing importance of providing nutrition information to families and students, Epicure Digital NutriSchool is a logical way for K-12 schools to communicate to students and parents about nutrition information relating to their menus. This will help educate students and parents alike on the nutritional quality of their food choices,” according to Kim Blum, MS, RD, LD, owner KB Nutrition Consulting in Dallas, TX and a former USDA employee, “and it makes perfect sense to showcase the improvements via a simple system which can be displayed on cafeteria menu boards, online and in the classroom.”

Increasing participation in breakfast and lunch programs is essential to retaining profitability. Less than half of low-income children receiving school lunches participate in the breakfast program and only about 30 million out of the total 50 million students in US public schools participate in the school lunch programs. Food services have potential to double the number of school meals served.

The NutriSchool™ system displays daily menus, nutritional data and labels, allergen alerts, and educational and promotional messages and graphics on classroom smart boards, on district and individual school websites, and on menu boards in the cafeteria, to inform, engage and encourage student participation.

In the classroom, teachers can use NutriSchool menus on smart boards to help students make healthier menu choices. At home, viewing NutriSchool menus on the school website, parents can guide their kids to make healthier menu choices. In the cafeteria, digital menu boards can educate on the front line, at the point-of-sale.

“NutriSchool is an affordable system,” explained Harvey Friedman, President and Founder, Epicure Digital Systems. “Any size school district can easily and quickly provide daily online NutriSchool menus on their websites and existing classroom smart boards. And, the same system can also be used to control LCD menu boards in cafeterias if and when they are required.”

For schools that already publish weekly and monthly menu information on their websites, NutriSchool provides the ability to display an additional webpage updated daily with nutritional and allergen information for each menu item.

NutriSchool utilizes a proprietary nutritional menu labeling system to easily select icons representing food groups, allergens, and nutritional data for each menu item.

NutriSchool can display district wide ES, MS and HS menus, or menu and nutritional information for each school with each school’s local messaging and graphics.

NutriSchool can display different graphics and communicate different messages on the websites, smart boards and cafeteria digital menu boards, targeting students and parents with relevant and timely information for each platform.

NutriSchool can provide content in English and Spanish.

NutriSchool can read and display RSS feeds, campus alerts, live weather forecasts and current news and information from the Internet and can easily be set to display nutritional tips of the day and other school and district news and information.

NutriSchool can integrate with food service management and nutritional information systems.

NutriSchool is a product of Epicure Digital Systems, a leader in digital menu board systems with over twelve years of experience designing customized digital menu and nutritional board systems. The company pioneered the display of nutritional data on menu boards in 2004 for the U. S. Navy.

Epicure Digital clients include K-12 schools, colleges and universities, hospitals, independent and chain restaurants, contract food service companies, business & industry, and cinemas and casinos among others.

The company's website has an extensive portfolio of its client's digital and online menu board projects.

Visitors to the CSNA California School Nutrition Association Annual Conference in Pasadena, 9-10 November 2012, Booth #305, will be able to view NutriSchool at the Epicure Digital booth on large daylight readable Sunbrite™ LCD screens for indoor and outdoor menu boards.

Contact:
Tommy Orpaz
Epicure Digital
8665 Wilshire Blvd., Suite #305
Beverly Hills, CA 90211
310-652-8246