GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Some schools across the country are scrambling to keep milk on the lunch menu after the USDA said there’s a shortage of half-pint containers the drink comes in.
While the menu changes, lunchtime at West De Pere Intermediate School is pretty much the same every day. Students in De Pere and across the country are served fruits, vegetables, grains, meat or meat alternatives, and milk — all required by federal law.
But according to the USDA, some schools are struggling to put half-pint milk containers on the table after one of the largest producers of the cartons had to take one of its manufacturing facilities offline.
“It’s very popular. It’s basically the universal size for all the school milk, both public and parochial,” said Eric McGuire.
McGuire is the vice president of business operations for Lamers Dairy, which supplies a lot of the the local parochial schools with their milk.
According to McGuire, Lamers, which bottles its own milk into the half-pint cartons, learned a couple of weeks ago about the container shortage. A back stock of packaging material, however, is helping Lamers get by — for now.
McGuire said, “We’re well suited to kind of weather that a little bit with our back inventory. However, recent orders are coming in now that are going to be delayed. We’ve been notified of that, we’re hoping that the plants can come back online and get caught up with their capacity by the end of Thanksgiving week.”
After checking with several local school districts, including Green Bay, West De Pere, Appleton and Kaukauna, none are anticipating having to make changes to how they serve milk.
Big producers of school milk, like Kemps, however, say they are already making alternate plans to keep the milk flowing into schools.
“We’ve had to streamline our milk fats a little bit, you know where we’re only providing one percent as opposed to the two percent or chocolate. We still are producing the milk we’re doing five gallon bags so kids are still getting milk, but they’re getting it in different way in a dispenser,” said Keven Niemi with Kemps.
And since the shortage is with the containers and not the milk itself, school districts say they will find ways to ensure they’re still offering the drink.
The USDA said while schools are expected to meet the milk requirements, supply chain disruptions are cause for some flexibility.
