Hamburger Hunt Is On, As Schools Wrestle With Food Shortages

Public schools officials are scrambling to reconfigure cafeteria menus due to nationwide food shortages and price increases.

Food Services Executive Director Gail Sharry and Acting Budget Director Michael Gormany updated the Board of Education about the subject at a meeting Monday evening.

Due to the pandemic and global supply-chain bottlenecks, many vendors have implemented a Covid-19 ​“surcharge” to products’ unit prices or have given notices of week or month-long delays on deliveries.

The board unanimously voted, based on this memorandum, to allow the NHPS Food and Nutrition Department to accept increased prices on food products and accept substituted food products from new vendors to replace unavailable items on the established food menu. The process to do so could otherwise take weeks without Monday night’s vote.

“With this food shortage going on, we cannot wait two to three days or weeks at a time to be able to accept substitute items or an increase in pricing,” Gormany said.

The approved plan will not increase contract amounts but instead allow officials to look at individual items and accept some increased prices. If the team finds it necessary to increase a contract amount, it agreed to go through the approval process with the board.

“To be consistent with menus and to keep food services operation going, we are seeking these two items as approval from the board,” Gormany said.

The NHPS Food Service department is competing nationwide and with other Connecticut school districts for products, Gormany said.

As early as February, Sharry selected bids with manufactures with fixed unit prices. Those contracted food product manufacturers are now asking for a ​“Force Majeure” price increase due to the pandemic.

Sharry reported that chicken products have increased 10 to 15 percent and the system faces shortages of bread, grains, and potato products. All of which are requiring Sharry to resort to making changes to the school-year menu. The system will still offer chicken, but less than planned.

“We will of course manage the pricing and make sure that it makes sense and that we can sustain it for the program,” Sharry said.

The district’s hamburger vendor, Tyson Foods, canceled its entire school order. As a result Sharry plans to substitute hamburgers with a Maid Rite bid with little to no price increase.

BOE member Tamiko Jackson-McArthur asked if the district could begin using locally farm meat to help with the issue. Sharry said the district has considered sourcing from local farms but has since learned most cannot meet the district’s quantity needs.

Lupi-Marchigiano Bakery, however, has agreed to help the district with its bread shortage, Sharry said.

Time for Plan C

The board Monday night was also given an update from NHPS Director of Transportation Carl Jackson on the bus driver shortage.

First Student is short 23 drivers for NHPS’s’ 301 daily routes. Currently seven First Student staff members have been taking up routes to help with the shortage, and ten drivers from other school districts like Hamden have offered help. Jackson said the department is still working on improving its communication efforts with families and schools.

The board raised concerns over the ongoing bus delays, some more than an hour, for families as the sun begins to go down earlier.

“It seems to me instead of continuing to fix the system that has been broken for many years, and probably going to remain broken for a while, why don’t we try to update the system so that it meets today’s need?” said BOE member Darnell Goldson.

Goldson encouraged the board to create a committee to discuss the issue.

“It feels like we need a plan C,” said BOE member and Mayor Justin Elicker.

Elicker suggested paying parents to drive students to school, reconfiguring bus routes to urge nearby families to walk to school, and partnerships with Lyft or Uber.

“I don’t see it getting better if we don’t start working outside the box,” said BOE member Larry Conaway. ​“We’re doing Plan C with food. We’re going to have to do Plan C with teachers, Plan C with transportation, Plan C with the climate of the schools. We’ve just got to flip this upside down and take this as an opportunity.”