Nutri-Link Technologies Introduces New Portal Application
Enables Parents and Students to Learn About the Nutritional Content of School Meals, Helps in Overall Fight Against Childhood Obesity and Promotes Better Nutritional Choices.
01/05/06 Nutri-Link Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of technology for school nutrition programs, announced today Nutri-Cafe, an interactive virtual cafeteria portal application that allows parents and students to easily view and learn about the nutritional content of school meals, leading to healthier eating habits and lifestyle for students.
The portal also provides school districts with an ideal solution to meet some of the requirements of the federal Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004. Part of the law calls for school districts that provide free and reduced-price meals to implement local school Wellness Policies by the beginning of the 2006/2007 school year.
Gwinnett County Public Schools, the largest school district in the state of Georgia and in the Atlanta area, has installed Nutri-Cafe so parents and students can access their nutritional information on school meals beginning this month.
"We are excited about this new educational tool," said Lora Novak, Interim School Nutrition Director for Gwinnett County Public Schools. "Nutri-Cafe will provide our school nutrition leaders an added resource to use with students and parents. Our hope is that this technology will generate more discussion among students and their parents about meal choices, helping them to better understand the many choices available and the health benefits of choices."
Nutri-Cafe is a web-based nutrition information portal available any time for students or parents with access to the Internet. Parents and students can view menu choices for their school, create meals and print their breakfast or lunch meal plans in minutes. This advanced planning helps students arrive for breakfast and/or lunch prepared, resulting in faster moving serving lines, reduced serving time and increased throughput for the school's food service operations.
The system is simple and easy to use with drag-and-drop functionality. Nutri-Cafe features a virtual serving line that displays all the food items and condiments available for that particular school. Each item then can be dragged onto the tray icon and when the mouse is moved over to a particular item, the nutritional value and cost of that item is displayed. There also is a visual indicator when components of a complete student meal have been met so parents can take advantage of reduced pricing for complete meals.
"Obesity in kids is now epidemic in the United States with the number of children who are overweight more than doubling in the last three decades," said Michael Lobato, president of Nutri-Link Technologies. "Obesity is easier to prevent than to treat and the most useful tool in prevention is through parent education. Nutri-Cafe is a key tool for school districts to use in educating parents, students and the community at large on nutrition, as well as comply with the federal Child Nutrition Act."
