Supply chain issues are starting to hit every part of our daily life. And now, they’ve hit Wisconsin school lunches, leaving faculty and staff unsure of how they’ll accommodate students on a daily basis.
Here’s Five Fast Facts About School Lunch Supply Chain Problems:
- 🥪Distributors - Different school districts use different distributors. This can be a problem. For example, Beloit uses Aramark and Stevens Point uses Chatwells. Chatwells have fewer difficulties and have been able to keep most things in line.
- 🍗Improvising - Various factors can cause shortages, leaving distributors forced to make poor substitutions for their supplies. In other words, the chicken nuggets can be great one day and then be “chicken” nuggets the next.
- 🔪Out of It - There’s also the pandemic itself. In one case, a school’s entire kitchen staff was exposed to COVID, leaving school administration to have the food prepared out of state and trucked in on short notice.
- 🥩Mystery Meat - In some cases, districts may not even know what they’re getting until the last minute. That makes planning meals that adhere to federal guidelines (and keep everyone safe) a nightmare.
- 📃Money Talks - Some districts have been able to or are currently in the process of changing distributors or making other proactive choices. The Madison School District, for instance, has enacted a plan where they’ll use all USDA food commodities to ensure consistency throughout the year. So no more “chicken” nuggets.
🔥Bottom line: This is another case where people are left with very little, if any, options. Students have to eat and many students depend on those meals to begin with. You may see more and more distributors losing contracts due to supply issues, leaving only a few running the show.
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