The ongoing supply chain and labor shortages affect industries, grocery stores, school lunches. Two providers serving Butler County are adapting.
Poplar Bluff
The Poplar Bluff school district is served by Chartwells K-12, a division of Compass Group North America. Food services director Dixie Harden said Poplar Bluff has been able to provide for children by changing their menus and making substitutions amid fluctuating supply.
“I mean, we’ve been able to feed our kids ... we have had to change our menu around a few times because we didn’t get what we needed at the time when we needed it, but we were still able to provide food for our kids,” she said.
Shortages, like menus, are different every week, so Chartwells acquires ingredients like pizza crusts through alternative routes. via Foodbuy, a foodservice procurement organization.
“It gives us alternative avenues to go through to get the product we need. So when we were short those pizza crusts, two or three days later we got in 50 cases,” said Harden.
Paper products are hardest to find, but fortunately the Poplar Bluff school district began eliminating paper plates in favor of washable trays several years ago. The biggest issue facing Chartwells now is a staffing shortage. Harden finds fewer people applying for jobs, and those who do must pass background checks and other requirements for working at a school.
“Before the pandemic, I would post a position, I’d have 20, 30 people applying for it,” Harden explained. Now, she sees about half that number. She has hired most of them, she added.
Neelyville and Naylor
Angie Rigdon, director of nutrition services for Naylor and Neelyville schools, said OPAA! Food Management saw supply chain problems coming and stockpiled simple foods like condiments over the summer.
“I think that was probably what saved us, was the company being proactive and making sure that we were set up, because they had already foreseen that there was going to be an issue. So that was a good thing that was in our favor,” she said.
Stockpiling did not completely head off difficulties. OPAA! has also collaborated with Hope International for access to their trucks and warehouses and is hiring local drivers, but deliveries remain sporadic. One solution has been increasing fresh produce like kiwis, blackberries and peppers, which Rigdon said children are enjoying. Rigdon also has an alternate food provider for items like buns and ranch dressing: One Stop grocery store in Neelyville.
“Being so rural, it makes it a little bit harder to find local vendors,” Rigdon explained. “Some of our schools are lucky to have Walmart and things like that. I’m just good with Naylor One Stop helping us with that stuff.”
They also received help from Neelyville Ag, who volunteered a forklift to unload a delivery truck, and OPAA! office employees, Rigdon included, have taken on delivery roles. Even Rigdon’s family is helping out.
“All of us are doing this, this is pretty much company-wide. It’s an industry-wide issue. I just feel blessed that my communities, and the people around us step up, because if we didn’t have that we would be in a lot of trouble,” she said.
Transparency with schools, plus collaboration between the districts, has been vital to keeping things running. Neelyville superintendent Debra Parish said she got emails from both Rigdon and OPAA! about the situation before school year started.
“I have had no complaints and have really not been had to deal with the issue, except the one time I helped unload the truck, because Angie has done such a good job in keeping things going,” Parish praised.
Neither she nor Rigdon know how long the shortages will last — OPAA! estimated in August they would only last six to eight weeks, but Rigdon said they have reached that point with no change. On the bright side, their predicament is finally in the news.
“We need people to be aware of the situation so that way they’re more understanding of what we go through,” said Rigdon.