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This week’s top 10 touched school nutrition, foodservice, food retail and CPG news with school nutrition news being widely read and taking three spots on the list.
Most-read was news about school foodservice directors seeking the continuation of federal waivers to allow continued flexibility for school meal programs. The move comes as Beth Wallace, president of the School Nutrition Association and executive director of food and nutrition for Jeffco Public Schools in Colorado, and other school nutrition professionals cite supply chain challenges that affect menu planning this year and next.
In a separate story, a nutrition services manager in an Oregon school district spoke about her experience with supply chain issues and how school nutrition professionals have been creative, thinking of substitutions based on food they have on hand, such as working with yogurt when they didn’t have mayonnaise.
Beyond supply chain challenges, news this week about school foodservice programs facing financial hardships, according to a survey released by the School Nutrition Association, also made the top 10 list. Of those surveyed, 38% of districts report that school meal programs experienced an overall net loss in the 2020-21 school year, and many districts said higher federal reimbursements were not enough to cover costs.
Food retail stories took the second- and third-most read stories this week, with the announcement of Hy-Vee’s new president and chief operating officer, who started his career at the chain as a part-time clerk in 1995, coming in at no. 2 on the list, and at no. 3, news about Amazon expanding its same-day grocery delivery service from major supermarkets in the US and Europe in the coming year, according to published reports.
News about Kroger eliminating its two-week emergency leave for unvaccinated workers who contract COVID-19 and adding a $50 surcharge every month for salaried, unvaccinated employees covered under its insurance plan rounded up the top 5 most-read stories this week.
Other most-clicked stories this week covered restaurant menu price inflation, chefs’ favorite holiday treats, the FDA’s implementation of a laboratory accreditation rule and Kraft Heinz merging its US and Canadian business divisions into the North America Zone.
Here’s the complete list of this week’s most-clicked stories in SmartBrief’s Food & Beverage briefs:
- Continued federal flexibility sought for school meals
- Jeremy Gosch named president and COO at Hy-Vee
- Report: Amazon set to expand grocery delivery service
- Report: Menu prices kept rising in Nov.
- Kroger ends COVID-19 leave for unvaccinated employees
- SNA survey: School food programs face financial worries
- Chefs share their top holiday desserts
- FDA to implement laboratory accreditation rule
- Ore. school nutrition manager talks supply chain issues
- Kraft Heinz to bring US, Canada divisions under one roof
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