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What happened when the Soviets promised free food and equal wages for all no matter what their level of productivity? Shortages of food, of course. Once the pricing mechanism of the market was destroyed, the outcome was predictable. Now, big blue states in America can’t keep the “free” food on the table at schools. The Boston Globe reports:
Laura Benavidez, executive director of food and nutritional services at Boston Public Schools, which serves over 35,000 meals daily, said this school year has been a string of supply chain headaches. This week, build-your-own nacho bars were reimagined as taco rice bowls when whole grain chips didn’t arrive. Spaghetti and meatballs became meatball subs when they ran out of pasta.
“You order,” she said. “Then you hope and pray that whatever you order shows up on the truck.”
Labor shortages are largely to blame for a problem: There aren’t pickers to harvest food, drivers to haul it, or warehouse workers to distribute it. In Boston Public Schools, more than one in every five positions for food service workers is currently vacant, said Benavidez, which means some school kitchens that once had three or four cooks making food from scratchare down to one staff member serving prepackaged meals. And prepackaged meal vendors face supply chain issues of their own, she said, meaning that yes, Boston’s been plagued by pizza problems too.
“We got calls from our staff saying there’s no pizza and I was like, ‘What?!’ ” Benavidez said, shaking her head. “No one is immune to this.”
The Globe further reports that school administrators are now sending kids home to distance learn so they have food to eat. What happened to brown-bagging a lunch? They write:
School meal programs have always been a critical source of calories for food-insecure children, and the crisis comes at a moment when more kids than ever are relying on school food for meals, said Erin McAleer, the president of the hunger advocacy group Project Bread. The nonprofit has been encouraging districts to be transparent about what’s going on in school kitchens and has been offering training and recipe development tips to help employees think on the fly when their order of chicken or corn isn’t delivered.
When the government promises food, and simultaneously forces people out of work with COVID-19 restrictions or incentives, it should be no surprise that food will be scarce.
