Your K-12 Customers Need Your Product Information
Software Pilots Underway
The Data Sharing & Analytics Initiative has been underway since March 2017, taking multiple steps to create consensus and cooperation across the school food ecosystem to ensure a Data Exchange rich with analytics benefiting the entire K-12 segment.
The Menu Planning and Production Records software includes the GTIN (Global Trade Item Number), enabling menu planners to search and filter items by different criteria and then quickly import the required nutritional and meal pattern credit information individually for each product to correctly evaluate a menu for compliance.
This will greatly simplify the effort required to build recipes and menus and to streamline related functions. The integrated data, along with corresponding operational data, will be shared among stakeholders, including participating suppliers, and advisors to drive data analytics.
As the name implies, the Data Sharing & Analytics Initiative is comprised of two primary components:
Data Sharing: A unified industry-wide database of food product specifications that is updated continuously and accessible to stakeholders in real time. This advance will help operators simplify menu planning, administrative reviews and power both desktops and mobile apps.
Analytics: A data warehouse of aggregated standardized operating data from schools that, when combined with product data, will provide insights to operators, suppliers, researchers and others across the supply chain.
Call to Action
School districts are currently participating in the School Pilot to test the data collection and reporting protocols using inTEAM prototype menu planning and production records software that integrates with the Data Exchange. The first pilots launched in January 2020 and enrollment will be limited to 1,500 school buildings to build a diverse representative sample of ~1.5% of the national school market. The project aims to be completed by the end of 2020. Learn more about the Data Standardization Pilot.
Hundreds of brands are now supplying their GTIN information to the Data Exchange and our goal is to ensure that complete data for your K12 food items is made available to meet regulatory requirements for menu compliance and meal reimbursements.
Step #1: Register and Publish your Products
Menu planners can enter your items manually, but the process is labor intensive and prone to error. The inclusion of your products in the Data Exchange allows them to select your products to build recipes and menus quickly and accurately.
- Complete the Nourish to Flourish Trading Partner Form and we will set you up as a subscriber.
- Publish your product information to the Nourish to Flourish GLN 0860206001702 as an initial load.
- Note: If you rely on a third party data pool provider to publish your data, please ensure that you request they publish as soon as possible.
Step #2: Ensure Data Quality
K-12 programs require additional information in order to receive credit for a fully reimbursable meal. The necessary CN Crediting information was added to GDSN two years ago, but most suppliers are not populating that information. Menu planners will choose to select items that have the required information populated to ensure that they meet this requirements without additional research and manual entry.
Best Practice: Suppliers should ensure that these attributes are populated in the Data Exchange and updated as GTIN items are added or modified. Incorporating this content into your publications may takes time and effort but is a critical component for CN Crediting. Please Contact Us if you would like assistance with implementing this step.
Interim Solution: We can assist with a one-time population of CN Crediting information in the Data Exchange. This is an imperfect approach but will serve as a work-around until you begin populating those attributes in GDSN. Please complete the GTIN Matching spreadsheet and e-mail it to allison@e-inteam.com to be uploaded into the Data Exchange. NOTE: This one-time population of CN Crediting information is a short- term fix since the data will be static and not updated as items change, resulting in menus that are out of compliance.
Step #3: Review Your Data in the Exchange
Suppliers will benefit from having the opportunity to review their items as they are seen by Menu Planners to determine if content is missing or in need of updating. Contact Us and we will be happy to schedule a brief demonstration to review your items.
Suppliers may also choose to execute a Trading Partner Agreement for the pilot period. There are no fees associated with participation during this period. The Agreement enables your organization to obtain login credentials for the prototype software to view your product listings in the item Data Exchange to check for quality and, ultimately, to utilize the menu planning software to design your own recipes and menus to share with schools.
