"A bit easier" for Southeast Missouri school districts to find food meeting nutritional guidelines, but struggles still remain

Cape Girardeau Public Schools officials reported that procuring food that meets federal and state nutrition standards is easier than in the past couple years but is still a struggle.

Two and a half years ago, because of COVID-19, the district was left without a food distributor. Often, the food they could find did not meet federal nutritional guidelines. Federal officials waived those restrictions to make it easier for schools to feed their students.

Josh Crowell, assistant superintendent of Support Services for the district, said direction from the government was, "Feed the kids what you can feed them. Do what you can."

However, those waivers have been rescinded, and schools are expected to return to serving food meeting the pre-COVID-19 nutritional guidelines. Though supply issues have somewhat improved, there are still challenges

Dana McClard, food service manager of the district's Nutrition Services Department, said meeting the guidelines is difficult because it's hard to find distributors carrying such products.

"We have to meet the dietary guidelines. We have to meet a certain amount of whole grain products, sodium and calorie restrictions," McClard said.

Cape Girardeau school officials are preparing for a federal procurement review of the 2021-2022 school year. The reviews happen every six years, and Crowell said the results will be interesting.

"We're well aware there are going to be some benchmarks we did not completely succeed at meeting," Crowell said.

McClard said another difficulty is being able to set a menu ahead of time only to find out certain products aren't available. But she said things are moving in a better direction than they were.

Before COVID-19, menus were issued a month ahead of time. Now, menus come out a week at a time, and even then, they are not written in stone because some planned-for items don't arrive.

"I might try to put mini-pancakes on the menu, but when I go to place an order, they won't be available from the manufacturer," McClard said. "Sometimes we think it's coming on the truck, but it just doesn't show up, and you have to make adjustments with things we have in-house or last-minute things we can add to an order."

Crowell commended McClard and her team for how they responded during COVID-19 and how they have continued to find and provide meals for the students that follow the governmental guidelines on nutrition.

McClard said two suppliers, US Foods and Gold Star Foods, are providing food for the district.

"But even they are not able to get us everything we need," McClard said. "It's not their fault. It's a manufacturing issue where products are discontinued, or they don't have enough labor to be able to produce the products."

McClard said many public school districts across the country are having the same difficulties. She said whole grain requirements — 80% of any bread or pasta products they serve has to be whole grain wheat — are the hardest to meet

"It's the same with pizza crust. However, every time I find one that is whole grain, it gets discontinued," McClard said. "Sometimes, I can find the whole grain products, and sometimes whole grain is just not available, so we have to use regular pizza crust. You just do what you got to do to be able to feed the kids."

McClard credited everyone in her department who was able to take whatever food she could get them and make it work.

Crowell said that struggle has eased, and parents have been understanding through it all.

"It can be frustrating for parents when the menus are constantly changing," Crowell said. "Dana's department has done just a phenomenal job of letting them know as soon as possible if there are any changes. Some kids look forward to certain days and that certain meal of the week."