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School Lunch Crisis Sees Juice Boxes and Beef Patties in Short Supply

School breakfast and lunch menus may shrink because manufacturers are having trouble hiring enough workers and sourcing ingredients.

The pandemic wreaked havoc on food supply chains, and now U.S. schools are feeling the hunger pains. The Wall Street Journal reports that with manufacturers facing labor and product shortages, many education systems are worried they won’t be able to order enough food for school breakfasts and lunches when children return to the classroom en masse this fall. Juice boxes, beef patties, and chicken tenders are among items in likely short supply. The result is that some schools are whittling down menus, and suppliers are reducing their offerings. “We haven’t had a 100 percent head count school season in 15 months. It’s going to blow the doors open,” Andy Mercier of Merchants Foodservice told the Journal.