LA GRANDE — Supply chain issues gripping the nation have found a new, unexpected victim — local schools. Those issues prompted state leaders with the Oregon Department of Education to issue temporary waivers for schools for nutritional requirements.

That meant that long-time staples of the cafeteria such as pizza or spaghetti were absent. Officials grappled with brokering deals with new suppliers to get food to the students — many of which get most or all of their nutrition from lunches.

With supplies short on hand, local school lunch cooks had to improvise to get food out to hungry students.

“There’s products we’re only supposed to serve for child nutrition, and all of the pizza was zeroed out — it was nothing — so basically I did pizza that I put my own toppings on,” said Tanya Corta, a kitchen supervisor with Imbler School District. “We’re running on a tight ship here.”

Tight ship or not, the supply chain woes leave little certainty about the menus — often planned a month in advance — and whether or not the ingredients will even be available. That puts extra strain on kitchen workers and supervisors.

“I’ll have to do a last minute menu change and that’s sometimes hard — and sometimes impossible,” Corta said. “Its difficult, it’s stressful but we still get those kids fed.”

From short-changed orders to out of stock staples like hamburgers and pizza, schools are making do with less. As well, the time it takes to order supplies has increased dramatically as staff make deals with multiple vendors to fulfill ingredient requirements.

Michelle Glover, business director at La Grande School District said that creating orders once took little over an hour on Fridays. That same order now takes as long as four to five hours to finish as kitchen supervisors scramble and broker with different suppliers to get ingredients shipped out in time for next week’s lunch.

And even then, some supplies might be entirely out of stock, or arrive with less than was expected.

“Our orders are not being fully fulfilled, and so that’s what’s caused the real challenges.” Glover said. “It looks like it’s coming and it doesn’t arrive. We don’t get any notice in advance, so they’re having to be creative and on their toes with alternate plans in place.”

The same issue affects Imbler School District as well, even though each school district uses different suppliers and ordering methods.

Corta said that each week is a struggle to get orders in. She now orders two-weeks ahead of time, a method she employs to help dampen the effects of a supply chain that has been disrupted by worker shortages at manufacturing and processing plants, truck drivers shortages, and delayed shipments from cargo ships.

She’s not alone. Schools both big and small across Union County — and Eastern Oregon — have suffered similar supply chain woes. Those issues aren’t limited to just food.

At La Grande High School, foam lunch trays have been particularly difficult to procure, leading to lunches being served in plastic bags as opposed to trays. As well, the school has been shorthanded one staff member, meaning that lunches that once offered a variety of foods such as enchiladas or pizza have been diminished to sandwiches nearly every day of the week.

“They are definitely struggling with the supply chain for food items so definitely menu preparation,” Glover said. “If we’re planning on serving this and then product doesn’t arrive, or comes in short, and it’s not enough to cover all sites —we are having to be flexible in meal preparation.”

Pendleton shared similar worries with regards to supply chain issues — though like other schools, the situation is varied as different districts broker with different suppliers for food.

“We weren’t able to get hamburger patties for a while, and so we would substitute chicken nuggets or burritos,” said Suzanne Howard, director of nutrition services with Pendleton School District. “Or, we weren’t able to get pizza for a while, so again we would either not serve them that day if we had other options to serve, like at the Middle School/High School we served more than one. And then otherwise we would just have to replace it.”

As well, programs such as the Summer Seamless option — which provides free lunches to low-income students over the summer — were also hit by supply chain issues. Those programs will continue to operate and feed students, according to Howard.

Still, the districts aren’t worried about having to deny students lunch just yet.

“We’re not always able to serve what I have on the menu, but we always have a back up. I feel a lot more fortunate than what I’m hearing in other parts of the country,” Howard said.

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