5 things: SNA survey shows almost all programs struggling with supply issues

In this edition of 5 Things, Food Management highlights five things you may have missed recently about developments affecting onsite dining.

Here’s your list for today:

The School Nutrition Association 2021 Supply Chain Survey of 1,212 school meal program directors reveals the extensive impacts of supply chain and staffing challenges on school meal programs' financial and operational sustainability, with the top three challenges cited by over 98% of respondents being menu items not available in sufficient quantities/shortages, supplies/packaging not available in sufficient quantities and menu items discontinued by a manufacturer. Over three quarters of respondents indicated these three issues are “significant challenges.”

Read more: School Meal Programs Grapple with Supply Chain Fallout

Middlebury College in Vermont is moving classes online and transitioning to grab-and-go meals after 34 new cases were reported on campus, bringing the total number of active cases to 50, administrators said in an email to students. Athletic competitions and other in-person events are canceled or postponed, informal indoor gatherings are restricted to six people and the college is sunsetting indoor dining, with plans to offer grab-and-go meals instead.

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Read more: BREAKING: College reports another 36 cases, moving to remote instruction for remainder of semester

Proof of COVID-19 vaccination will be required to eat indoors, see a movie, attend a wedding or go to a Sixers or Flyers game in Philadelphia starting in January, as coronavirus cases and hospitalizations continue to surge in the city and state. Anyone entering an establishment where food is served indoors will need to show proof of vaccination at the door as of Jan. 3.

Read more: Philadelphia will require COVID-19 vaccine for anywhere food is served indoors, including restaurants and Wells Fargo Center

University of California Davis Dining Services has announced that its Silo Market, King Hall Coffee, Gunrock and Latitude Market dining venues will reopen in January after being closed in fall quarter due to a shortage of student employees while another outlet, California Coffee, is due to open for the first time in early February. “This will be the first time—knock on wood—that Dining Services will have our entire portfolio of dining options open since becoming self-operated,” said Kraig Brady, director of UC Davis Dining. The university took over management of food and coffee operations from Sodexo in 2017.

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Read more: Campus Coffee and Food Options Will Expand After Break

Audie L. Murphy VA hospital in San Antonio is transitioning its meal program to room service from the cook-chill method it currently uses, in which inpatient meals are served at specified times each day. Once room service is implemented, inpatients will be able to work with meal support staff on each unit to place their orders for times that they would like to eat. For the transition to occur, the Nutrition and Food Service team must first revamp their operations, including making food service workers cooks. “It’s just little changes, little enhancements that we’re making right now,” Executive Chef Carl Conway says. “But it’s a matter of going from cook/chill to cook it and serve it to you immediately. And the quality, there is no comparison to the quality.”

Read more: San Antonio VA serving meals to Veterans in friendly, appetizing manner

Bonus: Penn Medicine’s new Pavilion offers the latest in healthcare retail and patient dining

Contact Mike Buzalka at [email protected]