ALLENTOWN, Pa. - Just like businesses, school cafeterias are being hit by supply chain and labor shortage issues. Meaning in this pandemic, even the school lunch menu is TBD.
Lori Seier, Parkland School District’s food services director, explained that in the 24 years she’s been working in schools, she’s never experienced challenges of this nature.
“I was losing quite a few nights of sleep because I wasn't sure we were going to have food by the end of the second week of school,” said Seier.
Seier said distributors are having problems getting everything from forks to food, at least at the low prices schools need.
“We have had to go to commercial products, which in some cases, our commercial pricing is double the pricing for the products that we normally serve,” Seier said.
The USDA recently announced it’s providing additional funding to schools to offset increasing costs.
In addition to supply chain-related shortages, labor is also in demand at Parkland. Seier said she recently hired six workers but needs six more to continue serving nearly 6,000 meals a day to Parkland’s students.