Principal orders pizza for 400 elementary school students due to food-service staff shortage

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When all else fails, try pizza.

An elementary school in Pennsylvania had to order pizzas for its students when staffing issues resulted in no food services staff members being available to distribute meals to the students. Unfortunately, not all of the pizzas arrived in time to ensure every child was fed.

hand takes pizza (iStock)

In a statement to Fox News, officials from Mitchell Elementary School in Philadelphia, confirmed that while meals had been delivered to the school the previous day, the food services staff member assigned to the school was unable to show up for work on Sept. 23.

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According to the statement, "When Food Services staff are unavailable to be on-site at a school, the District’s policy is for schools to use contingency plans, including notification to the Food Services Field Supervisor to assign a roving employee to that site for coverage and/or by assigning non-Food Services staff to step in and manage meals distribution. Unfortunately, there was simply not enough staff available for this to happen at Mitchell."

The school stated that due to the staffing issues, the principal decided to have "external food" delivered to the school.

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Students were sent home with a letter explaining the situation to their parents.

The statement explained, "National supply chain and labor shortages are impacting all areas of the hospitality industry, including food services. Like many school districts across the country, the School District of Philadelphia has been impacted by these challenges."

As schools reopen amid the COVID-19 pandemic and delta variant surge, many face staff shortages nationwide.

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School officials confirmed to Fox News that a food services staff member was present at the school the following day and meals were then distributed to the students.