{"id":34359,"date":"2021-11-04T05:02:20","date_gmt":"2021-11-04T10:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=34359"},"modified":"2021-11-03T15:23:00","modified_gmt":"2021-11-03T20:23:00","slug":"oklahomas-cafeterias-have-been-hit-hard-by-the-coronavirus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2021\/11\/04\/oklahomas-cafeterias-have-been-hit-hard-by-the-coronavirus\/","title":{"rendered":"Oklahoma&#8217;s cafeterias have been hit hard by the coronavirus"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_34362\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 672px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-34362\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/11\/IMG_7160-672x490.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"672\" height=\"490\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/11\/IMG_7160-672x490.jpeg 672w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/11\/IMG_7160-1920x1401.jpeg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/11\/IMG_7160-768x560.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/11\/IMG_7160-1536x1121.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/11\/IMG_7160-2048x1495.jpeg 2048w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/11\/IMG_7160-150x109.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/11\/IMG_7160-300x219.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/11\/IMG_7160-620x452.jpeg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/11\/IMG_7160-1480x1080.jpeg 1480w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 672px) 100vw, 672px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Robby Korth \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A help wanted sign greets parents picking up and dropping off their children at Capps Middle School in Warr Acres. Sodexo, the company that contracts out Putnam City Schools&#8217; cafeteria services, says it&#8217;s down about 15 employees from full staffing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"width: 100%; height: 200px; margin-bottom: 20px; border-radius: 6px; overflow: hidden;\"><iframe style=\"width: 100%; height: 200px;\" src=\"https:\/\/player.captivate.fm\/episode\/2cbbef22-e92a-41c3-b195-deeaf4e54ab0\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s lunchtime at Capps Middle School in Warr Acres.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Students are lining up to get nachos from Jackie Havenridge. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nachos are one of a few options students have got today. There\u2019s a salad bar and pizza. But they are gravitating toward Havenridge.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThey love nachos,\u201d she said with a laugh.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More than one option is actually a lot these days. Thanks to a national food shortage, child nutrition staff &#8211; like the one working here as part of the Putnam City School District &#8211; are scrambling to make sure trays are filled.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt has been an interesting challenge,\u201d said Jennifer Strong, district manager for the state of Oklahoma for Sodexo, a contract management company that provides school districts with their nutrition programs. \u201cI&#8217;ve been in school food service now for over 20 years, and the last 18 months has been different than anything we&#8217;ve ever experienced.\u201d<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The pandemic has changed everything about lunchtime at Oklahoma schools. Strong says there was a massive statewide effort to feed kids when schools shut down in 2020. Now, there are issues with various options. In October, Edmond Public <a href=\"https:\/\/kfor.com\/news\/local\/edmond-public-schools-says-student-lunches-impacted-by-national-supply-chain-shortages\/\">announced<\/a> it would only serve one meal option each day at sites.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s been tough to serve some things like hamburgers at Putnam City Schools.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cStudents are used to seeing them multiple times a week, potentially as one of their choices,\u201d Strong said. \u201cNow they may only see them, you know, once a week or every other week or even in the elementary schools, maybe once a month.\u201d<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On top of the shortage in food, Strong says, there\u2019s a shortage in workers. A help wanted sign for cafeteria workers greets parents as they pick up and drop off their children at Capps.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Strong says Putnam City Schools is down 15 people at the moment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But the district is hardly alone, said Jennifer Weber, Oklahoma\u2019s State Department of Education Executive Director of Child Nutrition. She works with practically every lunchroom administrator in the state.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cStaffing is what we&#8217;re hearing is their biggest challenge,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0Like many food service jobs, there\u2019s a shortage of workers. Child nutrition might have appealing hours that coincide with a school day, but there are a lot of employers looking for staff right now. That means you\u2019ll see administrators joining the food service line across the state.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI&#8217;ve had principals at our primary school come in and serve lunch,\u201d\u00a0 Okmulgee Public Schools nutrition director Jim Price said. \u201c I mean, they&#8217;ll come in and serve lunch. I mean, it doesn&#8217;t happen all the time. But if it comes to that, that&#8217;s what we do.\u201d<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In his rural district, he\u2019s had limited and inconsistent options. So he\u2019s switched up his menu strategy. School meals are a complicated affair at each school. There are numerous federal nutritional regulations that each district has to follow. And shortages in anything puts pressure on staff to constantly change their menus.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cNow it says the main item and it will say fresh fruit, vegetable and milk and Juice Daily, because we don&#8217;t always know what that is,\u201d Price said.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rural schools like Okmulgee have had similar problems to urban districts like Putnam City. So getting creative is critical for everyone to ensure kids are fed.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Students might notice fewer options. They probably have seen the help wanted sign out front. But Sodexo\u2019s Strong says, they\u2019re largely unaware of what\u2019s going on. And she says, that\u2019s the goal.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThey can focus on their learning, they can focus on their education because they&#8217;re not trying to figure out where their next meal is going to come from,\u201d Strong said. \u201cThey know that it&#8217;s available to them at school.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s lunchtime at Capps Middle School in Warr Acres.Students are lining up to get nachos from Jackie Havenridge. Nachos are one of a few options students have got today. There\u2019s a salad bar and pizza. But they are gravitating toward Havenridge.\u201cThey love nachos,\u201d she said with a laugh.More than one option is actually a lot [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":209,"featured_media":34361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34359"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34359"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34365,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34359\/revisions\/34365"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}