DES MOINES, Iowa — School districts tell Local 5 they're seeing shortages of food and critical supplies that may impact what your students eat in the cafeteria.
"We're food hoarders right now," said Amanda Miller, the director of food and nutrition for Des Moines Public Schools, "we're trying to get everything that we can just because we don't know if things are going to get better or if it's going to get any worse."
Some of the shortages she's seeing includes juice boxes, breaded chicken patties and nuggets and supplies like plastic forks and spoons. When suppliers fall short on certain foods, the district tries to substitute in a similar item.
"We have to get creative," said Miller, "if our supplier can't deliver the whole order of breaded chicken patties, we find some spicy chicken patties, some chicken nuggets, and any other chicken items we can put together so we can still meet the nutritional needs and still contain the same meat origin."
Economic experts identified three problems that led to these shortages: the sudden drop-off and now surge in demand on food producers, those producers adapting who they do business with and labor shortages.
"As we recover, bringing back some of that institutional product processing capacity is something that will lag the demand," said Dave Swenson, a research scientist in the Department of Economics at Iowa State University.
When Iowa went into lockdown in 2020, schools transitioned to online learning and the need for school meals dropped with more students eating at home. Now that students are back in the cafeteria not only in Iowa, but across the country, Swenson said suppliers are struggling to keep up. That means longer wait times for schools.
"It's no longer we can order something today and get it on our truck Friday," said Miller, "Now we order something today and get it six months from now."
DMPS school lunch menus can be found on their website. Miller said any changes that come up will be shared with parents and students. For those concerned about dietary restrictions, the district has three dietitians on staff to make sure any allergens contained in those substitute foods are communicated.