Supply chain shortages across the state have left Ohio schools scrambling to provide lunches to students, with menu items consistently left up in the air.
"I haven't even placed tomato soup on our menu because I already know I can't get it," Kim Fletcher, cafe supervisor for Danville Local Schools, told the Mount Vernon News. "Fortunately, we are able to still provide a well-balanced meal to students even if it means a different brand of pizza or a new type of french toast, just as examples."
Though the hardest-to-find food items are constantly changing, Highland Local Schools Superintendent Nathan Huffman said pizza, hamburgers, chicken products and many breakfast items are consistently out of stock. Centerburg Local Schools Superintendent Mike Hebenthal underscored this, saying product shortages have come in waves, with chicken and paper products being the hardest to source.
“Every week, we place orders with one company and receive a list of out-of-stock items that we need to start searching for a substitute item to fill orders. It is not unusual to have 40 or 50 cases to find substitutes for. One week, we had 69 cases out of stock for an order of 140 cases in just one building of our district,” Huffman told the News.
The shortages have hit a wide range of schools throughout the state, including many in Mount Vernon and Knox County. Fredericktown Local Schools Superintendent Dr. Susan Hayward said this has affected the district's menus, though the shortage varies week to week.
“The first thing we do is look for a substitute food item. If we can't find a substitute, we call the vendor, and they tell us what is and isn't available. Sometimes, this causes a menu change,” Hayward said.
Throughout this time, she said, vendors have been a tremendous help in providing food choices based on availability, with truck drivers arriving quickly with the new food items.
“We appreciate the help from our vendors and the customer service they provide during these trying times. Everyone is doing the best they can, and we appreciate them,” Hayward said.
At the North Folk Local Schools, Superintendent Scott Hartley said they have been able to ensure every student is provided a hot entree with at least one option for lunch every day,
“Our staff has been creative in the ways we are trying to overcome the lack of items such as food orders and, yes, even trays to put the food on,” Hartley said.
Though the meal may not always match what is listed on the menu, Hartley said the district is working with the Ohio Department of Education, META and Gordon Food Service on a daily basis to try and find alternatives to substitute.
“We have utilized Amazon, Walmart and Friendly Meadows in Warsaw to get supplies when we are shorted," Hartley said. "Our staff has gone out of their way to personally pick up supplies when they can be found so we have trays or paper plates to serve food."
The shortage of paper products has likewise affected Danville.
"Our high school is only a warming kitchen, [so] we only keep things hot and serve from it," Fletcher said. "We do not have a dishwasher there so we serve on styrofoam compartment trays, which were hard to find, if you were lucky to find them.
"At one point we went to Sam's Club for paper plates to serve those students, [whereas] at the elementary building we were fortunate enough to use our washable serving trays and run them through a dishwasher," she added.
