Weekly meal plans (credits) explained

Some programs require the benefit to be meal-based, not dollar-based. HiveMarket supports both: an authorization on a weekly meal plan service type works in credits instead of dollars, and everything below applies only to those plans. Dollar-allowance clients are unchanged.

How a meal plan works

• The client gets a weekly amount of credits for each food type — Protein, Starch, Fruit, Vegetables, Healthy Fat. An item belongs to a food type, never to a meal: any protein can go toward any meal of the week.
• Every item counts toward one food type. The order can't be sent until every food group is filled to its weekly range — swapping within a group is always fine, skipping a group never is.
• Clients see no dollar amounts anywhere — just their credits. Staff placing orders see credits and dollars side by side.
• The order is recorded and reported as 21 meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner for each day) — each meal composed the way the standards sheet reads: protein and starch with every meal, vegetables at lunch and dinner, fruit and healthy fat daily. Shown on the order page, the vendor's worksheet, and audit bundles.

Household members — the one setup step

The family's weekly amounts come from who lives in the home. The easiest way: enter the client's date of birth on their profile (and in the spreadsheet import's "Date of birth" column) — the app works out their age group and keeps it current as birthdays pass. For ages 14–18 it also asks boy or girl, because the plan sizes those differently. On the client's page, add everyone else in the home the same way (by date of birth) or by age group (child 1–3, 4–8, 9–13, teen boy/girl, pregnant/postpartum, adult) — no names needed. The app sums the nutritional standards for those people to size the week. A meal-plan client can't order until this is filled in, and the app says so.

Good to know

• Weekly repeats re-send exactly last week's basket; if anything is unavailable or no longer adds up, the order stops as "Needs attention" instead of guessing.
• A client can hold a meal plan and a dollar plan of a different type at the same time — one card each in their shopping app.
• If a food group shows no items, This Week will warn you — contact HiveMarket support to finish the catalog for that group.