The Clay County Schools Nutrition Program is seeing the effects of a national supply chain issue.
Clay Schools Nutrition Program Supervisor Laura McLerran said that the shortage of products changes weekly. She said she thinks that the shortage has several factors at play.
“It’s everything from a labor shortage,” McLerran said. “Like I said this is nationwide. This is affecting school systems nationwide. Some manufacturers cannot get all the ingredients and to produce the products they’re used to producing. Some are having mechanical difficulty.”
McLerran said they’ve managed the shortage by utilizing inventory and ordering extra supplies when they can. She said a key help has been the schools’ partnership with their supplier Institutional Wholesale in Cookeville. She said that it gives the schools a list of items ahead of time so that they’re able to adjust their menus as needed.
Clay County Schools are not the only Upper Cumberland school seeing signs of shortage. Van Buren Schools Nutrition Program Supervisor Marlene Delong said that the biggest issue for their schools has been a shortage of paper products like plates and napkins.
McLerran said that the issues have not prevented their schools from providing their students with nutritious meals.
“In our district, we still have been able to continue the same level of meal service that we offer our students every day,” McLerran said. “Meeting all of our federal guidelines, and serving them the best meals possible. We do get shorted on our deliveries every week on some items, and it varies from week to week what those items are. But we’ve been able to adjust.”
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