Alabama schools are now facing widespread food and utensil shortages due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cayce Davis, the Child Nutrition Director for Elmore County Schools, told the Montgomery-based news station WSFA that the current shortages are forcing the school to be as creative as possible.
“Every week, we receive a truck to supply the meals for the upcoming week,” she said. “Last week, 12 of our schools did not receive trucks. Today, about an hour and a half ago, we received word that two more schools would not receive trucks. So since Wednesday, we’ve missed out on getting 14 trucks of food.”
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Davis added that certain food items like chicken and milk and food utensils such as plastic forks and trays are scarce.
“We’ve realigned our menu, changed what we’re planning for the next week, and tried to order product from different distributors,” she said.
The Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) has estimated that nearly 687,000 children who depend on nutritious meals from their schools are being affected by the shortage, which has impacted every district in Alabama.
Davis also said that along with her nutrition team being down “10 to 15 percent” due to family [and-or] health issues, there are also fewer food truck drivers to deliver the food to staff cafeterias and school kitchens.
“We’ve just tried to be creative and think outside the box,” Davis explained. “Actually, one of the trays we are using right now is a meat foam tray from the grocery store that they package meat on, but it’s great for kids to put their food items on and carry to the table.”
Montgomery Public Schools are facing a similar crisis regarding food shortages according to MPS Superintendent Dr. Ann Roy Moore.
“We were able to garner enough food to get us through the first part of this week,” Moore told WSFA. “We think we’ll start to have more deliveries starting to come in, in the middle of the week, and right now, it looks like we will be fine.”
As schools are being affected by COVID-19, Alabama hospitals are also feeling the brutal effects of the deadly pandemic.
Dr. Don Williamson, the president of the Alabama Hospital Association, told state lawmakers to prioritize funding for local hospitals due to 80 percent of the medical institutions losing revenue.
“What I’m worried about is when we get through this spike we’ll have hospitals that spent all of their reserves to get through this spike, then we end up losing the hospitals from the system before we get to another spike,” Williamson told the Alabama Political Reporter.
“We need dollars now to help address the crisis we’re in now,” Williamson said.
Newsweek reached out to Elmore County Schools for comment but did not hear back in time for publication.
