‘We were concerned’: Supply chain issues complicate Anthony ISD’s Thanksgiving lunch plans for students
ANTHONY, Texas -- Thanksgiving is a little more than one week away, but supply chains issues might make it a little difficult to set the table. It's even impacting a beloved school tradition.
The child nutrition director with Anthony Independent School District told ABC-7, the department has been planing its beloved Thanksgiving lunch for about two months. It's still on for this week, but supply chain disruptions made it much more difficult to plan.
Tisha Villalava says the product availability, the quantity size, and of course delivery dates and times were always changing. She says each week was different.
The child nutrition department was trying to figure out if it would even get turkeys in time. And it wasn't just the bird, other items you typically see on the thanksgiving table were difficult to get in order to prepare a little over 1000 meals for students.
"We were concerned," Villalava said. "We wanted to make sure that the students did get their meal because for some students, the turkey, the Thanksgiving meal that they eat here at the school is the only time that they'll be able to eat the turkey... I know our representatives were working very hard with all our vendors to make sure that we did receive the turkey."
The supply chain issues we're seeing this holiday season isn't unique to el paso, it's happening all across the country.
Villalava said now, instead of starting to plan in September, "as soon as school starts, which is in July, we're going to start making our orders in July to make sure that we have coverage for everything."
ABC-7 reached out to the three largest districts in El Paso County, EPISD, SISD, and YISD. All three say thankfully, they were able to get ahead of the problem and will still be distributing a Thanksgiving lunch for its students.
