Configure meals for your programs and create a summary report for the kitchen.
Configure meal options
If your center provides meals, you may configure Retreat Guru to give participants a choice of meal type (vegan, vegetarian, keto, etc.), and ask them to identify dietary restrictions (no dairy, no soy, low-salt, gluten-free, etc.)
Global settings
Go to Reg Settings > General > Reports > Kitchen Meals to configure global settings for meals offered to arriving guests departing guests. For days during the stay, the global settings assume all guests received breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Program settings
This special program meals feature is available only with certain software subscription plans. Not sure if your center qualifies? Ask your friendly support guru.
To override the global settings for a specific program, go to Programs > (choose a program to edit) > Advanced > Meals.
In the example below, the 5-day program begins on September 23rd and ends on September 28th - guests arrive on the 23rd and depart on the 28th.
Our global settings (see the previous section) are dinner on first day; breakfast, lunch, and dinner on full days; and breakfast and lunch on the last day.
For this 5-day program, however, a special meal schedule is in effect.
Registration settings
This special registration meals feature is available only with certain software subscription plans. Not sure if your center qualifies? Ask your friendly support guru.
Sam Spade registered for our sample 5-day program and called your registrar to negotiate a special meal schedule for himself. Sam will be arriving late on day one and will miss lunch.
To override the meal settings for Sam, go to Registrations > (select the registration you wish to edit) > Meals and select Custom Rules.
Special questions and program note
The answers to two special questions determine meal reporting - the Diet question (slug = diet) and the Diet Notes question (slug = diet-notes). You may rename these questions (the slug will remain the same) but only these questions may be used for the meal report. See Create or Edit Registration Questions.
A special program note named Kitchen Notes (slug = kitchennotes) can be used to display information for the kitchen. Go to Programs > (choose a program to edit) > Advanced > Program Notes to edit the Kitchen Notes for a specific program. You may set global default text for Kitchen Notes at Reg Settings > Program > Program Notes.
A sample section of an online registration form is shown below. For this sample, we've renamed the Diet question to read Meal type.
To omit a program from the meal report - to hide a program that does not include meals, like one hosted online - simply ensure that the Diet question for that program is not checked. If the Diet question is not enabled for a program, that program will not appear on the meal report.
You may also exclude registrations from reports (like the meal report) on a program-by-program basis or for specific registrations.
The meal report
To view, go to Reports > Meal Report.
Enter a date range, or choose a pre-set like next 7 days or next 14 days.
The Come Alive program shown included on the meal report shown above begins on September 23rd and has been configured so that Dinner on the 23rd is the first meal that participants will receive. The program ends on September 28th and Lunch on the 28th is the last meal that participants will receive.
Report components:
- Program name - the report is organized by program, for programs that include stays (and the Diet question) during the reporting period.
- Totals - shown per day per meal (B = breakfast, L = lunch, D = dinner), and per diet (Vegan, Vegetarian, Mediterranean, etc.) The totals are summarized per program, per day, per diet (meal type), and (at the very bottom) for all programs.
- Kitchen notes - appear for each program.
- Diet - in our sample we have renamed this question to Meal type. The meal report shows the total per diet (meal type) per day per program.
- Not Specified - this section includes people who have not selected a diet type. In other words, the Diet question was enabled for the program, but not required, and people in this section did not provide an answer.
- Diet notes - a red * appears by meal types that have been selected by participants who have added diet notes (like gluten-free, no dairy, etc.) Check the box near the top of the meal report to Expand all diet notes.
- Print - click on this button to produce a printable version of the meal report. Most printer setups will allow you to choose either portrait or landscape orientation.
- Additional Meals - add a section for extra meals that aren't connected to a registration or a program
In the sample below, we have checked Expand all diet notes.
Additional Meals
You may sometimes serve meals not associated with a registration or a program. For example, you may wish to forecast walk-in diners, add a number for a non-registered group, or add an allocation for staff meals. These additional meals will be included in the Total Meals table at the bottom of the page.
You can easily add these by selecting Additional Meals. (a.k.a. bulk meals)
Add a title for these special meals, add notes for the kitchen, and enter the number of meals per meal period per day.
You may add one or more Additional Meals sections to the Meal Report.
“First we eat, then we do everything else.” -M.F.K. Fisher
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