Parents in Alabama School District Asked to Help With School Food Shortage

ALEXANDER CITY, Ala. (WTVM) - Some schools in Alabama are still struggling to provide meals every day for the 688,000 students enrolled in their system. However, across the nation many schools are also facing a school lunch shortage.

News Leader 9 spoke with parents in Alexander City who say they’ve received an email from school officials about this issue. To help fix the problem, parents are now being asked to provide breakfast for their children at home.

“We’ve had some supply chain issues that have impacted almost every aspect of business in America and schools are no different,” said Director of Communications for the Alabama State Department of Education, Michael Sibley.

Across the country, a nationwide food shortage is impacting many areas like the 122 school districts in Alabama.

“We’ve had some issues with identifying truck drivers who can deliver food to the schools,” said Sibley.

Sibley also says the problem has also led to a shortage of meal supplies. With 688,000 students enrolled in the state’s school system, he says officials in Alexander City are now asking parents to help.

“There has been correspondence that has gone home in the local area, at least, asking parents to help as much as they can with providing breakfast for students,” said Sibley.

Sibley says the state typically spends $10 million every day providing meals.

“There are about 688,000 kids who get breakfast and or lunch provided by the school system every day and that generally costs approximately seven dollars per meal,” said Sibley.

Alexander City resident Natasha Richardson, says the news that she’ll have to feed her son before he heads off to Benjmain Russell High didn’t really bother her.

“Really I wasn’t upset about it, just more you got to prepare for your kids in the morning,” said Richardson.

As the district works through the problem, Richardson also encourages other parents to stay positive.

“I would just like for parents to bear with the school,” said Richardson. “Don’t be so hard on the school about it. It’s just breakfast that they telling you is not being prepared for the kids.”

Sibley says he hopes a system in place to provide higher pay to truck drivers also helps fix this problem.

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