With a new academic year on the horizon, school-food directors are ready with tricks to keep meals flowing, such as cutting pizza boxes and clamshell containers in half when lunch trays are not available, said a report by the School Nutrition Association on Tuesday. “The supply chain crisis, labor shortages and high costs are a long-term reality for school meal programs,” said SNA president Lori Adkins.
The report, based on 17 listening sessions in May involving 274 school food directors, food suppliers and state officials, said the new school year would look much like 2021-22; filled with struggles to acquire foods, beverages, supplies and equipment on time, in sufficient quantities and at expected prices.
Some foodmakers are scaling back the number of items that meet the specialized nutrition standards of the school meals program. Distributors have reduced the frequency of deliveries and sometimes charge more and demand more time for filling orders. Staffing shortages reduce the opportunity to prepare food from scratch.
“I don’t see things getting any better,” said a food director, who was not named. Another said, “I was advised to order my Thanksgiving turkeys now, in May, or I will not be able to get them for November.”
Food directors and foodservice officials “have grave concerns about the coming school year,” said the report. Besides supply chain disruptions and high inflation, they said it will be difficult to know how much food to order with the end of two years of free meals for all students. A related problem will be reminding lower-income families to hand in applications on time for children to receive free or reduced-price meals. “Use of pre-Covid data is likely to be a ‘best guess’ estimate,” said the report.
With lower participation in school lunch and breakfast, schools would see smaller revenues but will have to pay higher wages and higher food prices.
Food programs have made ends meet by demanding versatile ingredients. “If we can’t get two uses out of it, then we don’t order it,” said one participant of the listening sessions. When fruit cups were in short supply, some schools switched to whole, fresh fruits.
Schools responded to staffing shortages by offering higher wages or converting part-time jobs into full-time positions with better benefits. In some cases, they partnered with their district’s career and technical training programs to allow students to work in the kitchen, sometimes for pay or for work experience. Others turned to volunteers to bundle prepackaged foods.
The report, “Staying afloat in a perfect storm,” is available here.