The COVID-19 pandemic has incurred lasting supply chain shortages causing many essentials harder to come by. It appears almost no commodity is safe, even school lunches.
In a letter to parents, Creston and East Union food service director Tawnya Jones stated part of the scarcity is connected to an extended free meals program provided by the USDA.
“The district participates in the United State Department of Agriculture (USDA) Seamless Summer Option,” she stated. “This means that our school provides no-cost meals to all students. This program provides additional support and flexibility for our district to continue serving meals to children while maintaining safety measures and managing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Jones also stated scarcity is a supply chain issue.
“Included in the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are nationwide supply chain and product availability shortages,” she stated. “Disruptions are due to a lack of availability of raw ingredients and labor to produce, unload, and transfer food products. Some food and/or beverage products normally provided to students may not be available or arrive as scheduled. Due to unforeseen circumstances, last-minute menu changes and product substitutions may occur. Be assured meals will remain balanced, healthy, and plentiful. We ask for patience and understanding as we do our best to meet the needs of your children.”
St. Malachy food services director Lesha Clark said she has moved to buying whatever brand still supplies the item if their usual brand is unavailable.
“The USDA product that we can buy, it’s a PayPal-type system and they have what’s called pay dollars; it’s kind of like a bid-in-type thing where we can buy product at a cheaper price for the school and a lot of those products we’re not able to get so we have to go with, they still have the item but it’s a different brand of the item, I can do cosmetic changes,” she said.
Clark has been serving substitutions if the item itself can’t be found.
“If I have a mozzarella cheese bite and maybe I can go for the next best thing which might be a garlic cheese bread or a Bosco stick or maybe even a cheese pizza,” she said. “So, to say we’re having some shortages, yes, we are.”
Some distributers communicate delays to ensure schools have time to find meal substitutions.
“They’re asking us to place it a day ahead of time, and then if it changes...like Monday, we were supposed to have nacho cheese bites, well when I tried to order, it showed that it was out of stock,” Clark said. “I can go in and change that from my end and then I can email the teachers, so the kids are aware of that before they go home that day.”
St, Malachy has an advantage in serving fewer students than Creston and East Union.
“We have less kids than they do, but our numbers are still pretty good, our kids are still eating lunch, so that makes a lot of difference for us,” Clark said.
However breakfast has become more popular because of the USDA seamless summer option causing a strain on supplies where they weren’t before.
“Our breakfast numbers have really risen this year because of the USDA and the free meal program,” Clark said. “Some breakfast items we’re not able to get; some of the popular items like the pancake sausage on a stick, we’re not able to get that, but we try to sub it in with a pancake and maybe a piece of sausage.”
Clark also said scarcity is not only a supply chain issue and a free meal issue, but also a labor shortage issue.
“Martin Bros. and AEA, because we’ve worked with AEA through a bid contract, they’ve been really good notifying us ahead of time when the ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) is unknown, or the product cannot be fulfilled, but 90% of that boils back down to, from what I see in my eyes, to is not able to get the workers and styrofoam products and paper products.”
Despite this Clark is adamant that she is doing whatever she can to feed the students of St. Malachy.