This article defines the terms that appear most often in Gaia. Use it as a reference if a label on screen is not clear.

Item: A food product, supply, or ingredient. Items are the building blocks of the Pantry and are used as ingredients in recipes.

Catalog item: A shared item record provided in the Gaia Catalog. Adding a catalog item creates a district copy that you can edit.

Manufactured item: A recipe that has also been set up as an item, so it can be packaged, priced, and ordered like a vendor product. Used most often for items produced by a central kitchen and distributed to schools as packaged goods.

Vendor product: A specific product as it appears on a vendor's order guide, including pack size and price. A vendor product is linked to one item.

Recipe: A set of ingredients and instructions used to produce a menu item. Includes serving size, yield, and nutrition.

Item as Recipe: A simple recipe that represents a single packaged item served as is, such as a milk carton or a piece of fruit.

Sub-recipe: A recipe used as an ingredient inside another recipe.

Assorted recipe: A collection of recipe options for which a specific item is chosen at production time.

Fixing: A condiment, topping, or accompaniment served alongside a menu item. Fixings are not counted in the recipe's nutritional calculation.

Menu plan: The master menu built at the district level. Menu plans generate school menus when published.

School menu: A copy of a menu plan assigned to a specific school. School managers see only the school menus for their school.

Cycle menu: A repeating menu pattern, such as a four-week cycle that rotates A, B, C, D across the school year.

Offering: A recipe placed on a specific day of a menu, including its portion count.

Production record: The daily record of what was offered, served, damaged, discarded, and left over for one meal at one site.

Forecast: The planned number of servings of each recipe for a given day. Forecasts drive inventory commitments and order generation.

Central Kitchen: A site that produces food for multiple schools rather than only its own students.

Order guide: The list of products a school can order from a specific vendor.

Pantry: The central database of items, recipes, supplies, and products. Also the workspace where custom views can be created to browse and edit this data.

Pantry view: A saved combination of data type, filters, columns, and sort order in the Pantry.

Terminal: A POS device assigned to a school and a set of meal templates.

Session: A single service period on a terminal, such as one lunch service at one school.

Transaction: A single meal sale, refund, void, or adjustment recorded on a POS terminal or in the web app.

Eligibility: A student's Free, Reduced, or Paid status for meal program reimbursement.