A shortage of milk caused by a cybersecurity issue with Hood Dairy is just the latest in supply issues affecting meals this school year.
“Everything in the supply chain is up in the air,” said Joe Monroe, the food service director for Jaffrey-Rindge. “Every time we put an order in, it’s a wish list.”
This particular shortage impacted districts’ ability to input orders, Monroe said, but a workaround of writing out milk orders and emailing them is now in place.
Fresh Picks Cafe, the food service vendor contracted with Jaffrey-Rindge and most other local districts, anticipates the shortage lasting no more than a week or so, according to Vice President Of Business Development Christopher Faro.
“They have already started trying to fulfill orders with some success,” he said.
The milk order for WLC was not affected, according to Food Service Director Erin Smith. She estimated that this was due to the schedule of deliveries, as WLC received its last shipment prior to the issue being reported last week.
But WLC has faced numerous other challenges throughout the year, she said, in trying to reliably get the food it needs to feed students. This has often been made difficult by state regulations surrounding specific items that districts are allowed to serve, Smith said.
“We’ve had to file several waivers through the state for meal flexibility, just because the specific items that we normally would get, we couldn’t get,” she said.
In one instance, WLC could not get pancakes delivered for more than six months due to a supply chain issue, and was not allowed to find alternatives for the supplier since they would not be school-approved.
Monroe said that for the milk issue, the district has prepared a contingency plan to have juice and extra water on hand, but if such a shortage was extended, this would have ripple effects into the stock of those items. ConVal announced a similar plan through a press release last week notifying the district of the shortage.
Other items that have been affected by supply issues have included chicken patties, bacon and chicken nuggets.
“There’s a ton of juggling going on,” Monroe said. “For the last two years, but this year’s been the worst. One just bleeds into the next. This doesn’t just impact us, it impacts everybody, all the school districts.”