When the Cape Girardeau School District's food supplier abruptly dropped the district at the start of the school year, nutritional services employees had to get creative, according to Josh Crowell, assistant superintendent of support services.

Employees have had to outsource food supplies from Sam's, Aldi, Schnucks and Walmart to keep providing students with daily meals.

After months of struggle, Crowell reported at Monday's school board meeting the district is solidifying partnerships with food supply companies.

According to Crowell, the district was one of 27 school districts dropped by the same provider at the start of the school year.

"We were told it was a worker shortage," Crowell said. "They didn't have the truck drivers or the warehouse workers, so they couldn't keep up with the deliveries."

As a result, the district's nutritional services staff worked lots of overtime hours, according to Crowell. He described the situation as an "all-hands-on-deck moment" with certain employees such as maintenance staff reassigned to help nutritional services.

"We're still feeding kids every day, close to about 8,000 meals a day, between breakfast and lunch," Crowell said. "We've been able to keep the quality of the product."

Crowell said instead of relying on one provider, the district will now work with five to ensure a continuity of product.

Receiving food supplies from food suppliers is not only cheaper, but fairer to the community, according to Crowell.

"We've had staff utilizing every grocery store in the area, which can have an impact on the community," Crowell said. "We're a pretty big purchaser. We're trying to be community stewards where we're not overbearing anybody."

Turf installation for band practice field

Board members approved a $150,000 change order with ATG Sports to install Central High School football field's former turf onto the high school's band practice field.

ATG Sports was previously awarded a contract to install a new turf field for baseball and softball use at Central High School. The company is currently on-site, Crowell said, and the district will save substantial dollars in having them install the used turf while the company is there.

Crowell said the turf was used at the district's football stadium for about 10 years.

The field may also be used for physical education classes, practices for other sports teams and extracurricular activities, he said.

Other action

• As recommended by the Missouri School Boards' Association, Cape Girardeau School Board members adopted a change to the board's policy regarding vaping-device use. The change adds vaping to the school's disciplinary guideline concerning tobacco.

On the third offense of using tobacco and/or vaping products, an athlete will be restricted from participation in their sport for the remainder of a sport's season. Possible notification to law enforcement officials may also be involved.

• Board members approved a $79,750 bid from TK Elevator Corp. for the refurbishment and repair of an elevator in the district's central administrative office.

Of three companies contacted regarding the repair of the elevator -- Kone, Otis and TK Elevator -- TK Elevator was the only company to respond and submit a bid.