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 (child 1–3, 4–8, 9–13, teen 14–18, adult) and keeps it current as birthdays pass. Nothing else is asked — no boy/girl, no pregnancy question. On the client's page, add everyone else in the home the same way, by date of birth — 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.