What are some questions you should ask yourself when conducting a five-day meal count reconciliation:
What do you do as a monitor if you find unusual patterns or inconsistencies while you are conducting your five-day meal count reconciliation?
How should a monitor conduct a Five-Day Meal Reconciliation?
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Choose five consecutive operating days from the meal count record for the current or previous month.
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Gather the supporting documents: meal counts, current enrollment forms, and attendance forms.
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Identify the daily number of children or adult participants in attendance during the five-day period.
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Compare the daily meal counts to daily attendance to ensure that meal counts did not exceed the number of children or adult participants in attendance.
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Compare total enrollment to daily attendance to ensure that the number of children or adult participants in attendance did not exceed the number who were enrolled.
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If meal counts cannot be reconciled with enrollment or attendance data, determine the source of the error and appropriate corrective action.
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If necessary, take additional steps, such as expanding the reconciliation beyond five days, to determine whether corrective action and disallowance of meals or establishment of an overclaim are warranted.