The Habersham County School district has obtained a new food vendor for their 2022-23 school year to deliver quality foods to county students, while other districts are still in the dark on where their food will be coming from.
Amidst the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, school districts across the country have reported struggling to keep food supply chains running. According to a 2021 article in The New York Times many schools are facing a shortage of criteria staples including chicken, bread, and juices. Other news outlets including The Gainesville Times have also reported labor shortages amongst manufacturers and suppliers that provide meals to students in Gainesville and Hall County. A combination of truck driver shortages, labor shortages, increased food supply-demand, and increased inflation can all contribute to the issue being experienced.
Here in Habersham County, school district Superintendent Matthew Cooper said the district was able to work through this issue and secure a vendor for the upcoming school year.
“Fortunately, we are in good shape here in Habersham County,” Cooper said. “I understand that some other countries are struggling in this area.”
The district will be starting the school year with a new vendor, Gold Star Foods, which according to their website meets USDA-approved dietary guidelines for school meal nutrition. The new contract is under the Northeast Georgia Cooperative which includes Barrow, Habersham, White Rabun, Union, Towns, and Stephens Counties.
According to Andrea Thomas, school nutrition director for the Habersham County Schools, the district received a letter from U.S. Foods, who had been their vendor for the last eight years, in Mid-January that their contract would not be extended for the 2022-23 school year.
During this school year, the Habersham County School district has served 805,167 breakfast meals, 569,518 lunch meals, and 16,254 afternoon snacks, said Thomas.
“We had no choice but to send invitations to bid for groceries next year,” Thomas said.
Glenn Harbison of The News Observer reported that the nutrition director for Fannin County Schools Martha Williams spoke with the school’s superintendent regarding the roadblocks they are facing to secure meals for the 2023 school year. According to Harbison, the district’s vendor was also U.S. Foods, which cited driver shortages, fuel costs, and labor shortages at the company’s warehouse as a reason for not being able to extend their contracts.
Fannin County Schools joined Dawson, Lumpkin, Stephens, Gilmer, and Pickens counties to form a Mountain Area Group to bid on a contract for a new food supplier. The combined buying power did not attract a supplier, though, and the districts had not received any bids. Fannin, Gilmer, and Pickens are now combining power to try to find a bidder.
Habersham County also struggled to secure bids during March and April according to Thomas but was able to secure Gold Star Foods later in the year.
“Mid-April we made contact with Gold Star Foods and this had led to a signed contract with Gold Star Foods to distribute groceries to our schools for 2022-2023,” Thomas said.
Thomas said it was crucial for the district to work hard to secure their food vendor to continue to provide quality lunches.
“It is vital that we have a grocery contract with a food distributor to purchase and deliver food to our schools so we can provide meals to our students during the year,” Thomas said, adding that next year the district will partner with six other counties – White, Barrow, Union, Towns, Rabun, and Stephens – for their grocery bid as well.