Classic school lunch staples like pizza, chicken and juice boxes are in short supply.
And when heads of cafeterias track down a hard-to-find item, they’re paying more.
Greg Hummel, director of cafeteria service for the Derry Township School District, is paying a premium for pizza - an additional $2,000 in the past two weeks. He also forked over $20 extra per case of paper dishes.
Behind the scenes, while ensuring there’s enough food for the district’s four school cafeterias has become a juggling act, Hummel said they are managing.
However, that could all change.
“We’re in good shape at the moment, but I know it’s a matter of time ...I don’t think the situation is going to get better anytime soon,” he warned.
Across the country, schools are encountering shortages of staples such as chicken, fruits and paper cups amid supply-chain woes and a lack of truck drivers to deliver those items. It comes at a time when many cafeterias are facing staffing shortages.
School cafeteria directors are resorting to creative measures whether stockpiling, switching vendors, making last-minute menu adjustments or paying higher than normal costs.
In severe cases, schools in some parts of the country are contemplating a return to remote learning. Dothan City school district in Alabama asked parents to send their children to school with packed lunches.
In Philadelphia, a principal at S. Weir Mitchell Elementary School ordered pizza for 400 students when lunch service wasn’t available.
Jackie McMichael, director of food services at Susquehanna Township School District, said she was concerned early in the school year when vendors delayed much-needed deliveries. One food distributor stopped school deliveries altogether this year, she said.
“I’ve been struggling this whole year. It has been extremely time-consuming on my end,” McMichael said.
Hummel said he encountered a snafu two weeks before the start of school when the district and members of a cooperative purchasing group were informed by a distributor school food deliveries were on pause.
After looping in the United States Department of Agriculture, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s office and the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Hummel said the orders came through.
“We are living in the United States of America. You can’t just say we aren’t going to feed school kids,” he said.
Hummel said they have been juggling orders with different vendors.
To stay on top of supplies, McMichael said her district locked in prices with food distributors and are part of a cooperative purchasing group. She is constantly updating orders and just to stay ahead, she places orders four weeks in advance as opposed to the usual two weeks.
A grocery sized freezer is packed to the gills with food, she said.
To reflect last-minute changes, menu wording has been adjusted. Susquehanna is labeling fruits and vegetables as “manager’s choice” to accommodate fresh fruit, cups of canned fruit, applesauce or raisins, depending on what’s available.
McMichael said they have plenty of canned fruit but couldn’t find cups to serve it in until she located some through a new vendor.
One of the biggest challenges has been buying potato products, she said. Again, menus are labeled with generic “potatoes” instead of a specific type such as crinkle cut, potato wedges or smiley fries.
“That way students know they are getting a potato, just not which kind,” McMichael said.
Menus in the Cumberland Valley School District have also been simplified this year to help minimize last-minute changes, said Tracy Panzer, a district spokeswoman. In a typical year, she said deliveries are received a minimum of twice a week, but this year shipments are arriving once a week.
“We typically don’t know until the delivery arrives what products we will receive and what we won’t. We’re very fortunate that we are still able to offer multiple daily options for our students,” she said.
Most recently, she said they struggled to acquire chicken products, pancakes, juice boxes, bottles of water, peanut butter and jelly, and french fries.
Panzer said the delays and shortages seem to be caused by supply chain issues, sometimes caused by a shortage of dock loaders or truck drivers or a delay in the manufacturing of a specific ingredient or product.
This summer, Pennsylvania’s Departments of Education and Agriculture penned a letter to schools in the state warning of food supply and pricing hiccups. The letter recommended districts brace for budget increases due to higher food and distribution costs.
The state is offering guidance to districts related to amounts of emergency procurement to obtain products, and the process to apply for waivers if products are not available. In some cases, districts receive foods that don’t meet federal nutritional guidelines.
McMichael said they recently served Stouffers mac n’ cheese instead of a whole grain variety. At Derry Township, Hummel said they received tater tots instead of the federally mandated low-sodium version.
Fortunately, the United States Department of Agriculture has given schools more leeway in meeting federal nutritional guidelines for federally subsidized meals. It issued a waiver preventing schools from being financially penalized if they fail to meet the guidelines due to supply-chain issues.
In September, the department also issued $1.5 billion in aid to schools in light of supply chain disruptions.
“We know that districts are doing everything they can to put healthy, nutritious food on the plate for kids,” Stacy Dean, the department’s deputy undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services, told The New York Times. “We want to support that effort and reassure them that no one is going to get in trouble because of an unexpected difficulty.”
In the end, McMichael said everyone is working toward one goal.
“I think the important part is just get the kids fed,” she said. “As far as prices, I wouldn’t necessarily get a more expensive item just to serve it.”
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