Hi-tech solutions help foodservice staff and busy parents stay on the same page.

Given today’s hectic lifestyles and the growth of digital media, Culinary Express, the self-branded foodservice department of the Wayzata (Minn.) Public Schools, uses its web site, blog and brand-new mobile smart phone application, along with more traditional forms of communication, to keep a dialogue with parents in the district.

In addition to displaying school menus and nutritional breakdowns of items, the Culinary Express web site has a downloadable 24-page PDF document with descriptions and professionally-styled photographs of menu offerings. “We put that together for the parents, because obviously some of our items are a bit different, like the Funchables,” says director Mary Anderson. “We have fewer calls asking for explanations.”

Funchables, a Culinary Express creation, are a line of packaged meal combos that are similar to the branded kids’ lunches sold in retail stores, but with more nutritious ingredients, Anderson says. For example, the Cheese Munchable Funchable is a vegetarian-friendly offering of crackers, two kinds of cheese and carrot sticks. The Grahamunchable Funchable consists of graham cracker sticks, yogurt, a cheese stick and carrots.

Parents go to the Culinary Express blog to request information from the department or give feedback about foodservice programs and events. They can also try out the Recipe of the Month, an item that the kids have liked in the cafeteria, like Cheesy Chicken and Salsa, adapted for home cooking.

Input from parents has benefited Culinary Express as well. “We have taken parent recipes and expanded them and served them to the kids,” says Anderson. “One is a Chicken Tortilla Soup from a parent that has been very popular.”

In its biggest stride yet into the Digital Age, Culinary Express recently launched a mobile application for smart phones that gives parents on the run access to school menus, nutritional analysis and ingredient labeling and allows them to make payments to student accounts as well.