NORTHWEST
MISSOURIAN
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2021
MARYVILLE, MISSOURI
NWMISSOURINEWS.COM
VOL. 110, NO. 14
@THEMISSOURIAN
A BROKEN SYSTEM
Social workers added to local schools
Local restaurants bear cost of shortages, food price hike KENDRICK CALFEE Editor-in-Chief | @calfee_kc
T
Mental health has been addressed more in school systems in the past few years, yet it has worsened through the pandemic. Last month, the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Children’s Hospital Association declared child and adolescent mental health as a national emergency. In response to the increased need for mental health resources, Superintendent Becky Albrecht proposed that the district hire two new social workers at the October meeting for the Maryville R-II School District Board of Education. The board approved the proposal for one social worker to go to the middle school and one to go to the high school. The elementary school was not included in the proposal, because they already have a social worker. “There aren’t enough hours in the school day for our guidance counselors and building administrators to deal with these situations in addition to their routine tasks/management of the school day,” Albrecht wrote in her report. In her report, she said the money being spent on these social worker positions would be money well spent. During the first quarter of school, there had been a significant impact on school days, staff and other school activities. The school district already has the funds to cover these new employees, she said, so the only thing the Maryville Board of Education has left to do is find the right people for the positions. Teachers, staff and administration inside the schools are seeing this impact firsthand.
wo truckers pull into Gray’s Truck Stop & Restaurant for a diesel fill-up and a soda. It’s a windy day in Nodaway County, and a cluster of tall, white turbines spins quickly in the station’s backyard. Inside sits Gray’s Partner Marc Neff, who picks up another receipt for tires that reads “one of eight shipped, two of eight shipped.” Neff sits with his supplier, Derik Lape, who does sales and delivery for Falls City Mercantile Co., a food products provider based in Falls City, Nebraska. The two have been battling a broken supply chain system and a hike in food cost for the last six months, a problem that isn’t likely to be fixed anytime soon. Product availability has been at an all-time low for Neff, who runs a gas station and restaurant under one business. Some weeks, shipments don’t come with everything he ordered, and some products remain unavailable altogether. “I have no idea when and where we’re going to get any of it,” Neff said. Neff and Lape have the most trouble with products like tires, oil, beef, hand-breaded foods and appetizers such as onion rings, fried pickles and cheese balls. At one point, the restaurant went several weeks without a shipment of french fries. “Chickens don’t grow wings anymore; onions don’t grow rings,” Lape said with a chuckle. And when it is easier to get these products, the price goes way up. No food categories have decreased in price from 2020 to 2021, the Department of Agriculture reported. They have all gone up, some seeing an overall increase of 4%. This issue grew exponentially when scarcity of food and other products caused the price of them to skyrocket even further. The problem of scarcity isn’t unique to a small county in northwest Missouri, but rather it stretches to every corner of the U.S. and throughout much of the globe. Food economics experts are saying the rising cost stems from inflation and has been supplemented by long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Neff and Lape are seeing these effects and dealing with a part of life much of the public doesn’t have to think about day to day — the supply chain — the behind-thescenes path of getting goods from where they are made to where they are going, typically to a paying consumer. With prolonged shortages in products and shipping delays, Lape said timing is a huge factor at play. “You have to plan ahead. You can’t go week to week like we could before,” Lape said. The effects of hiked food cost first reached Gray’s Restaurant during the height of the pandemic, in March 2020, a time when local restaurants were simultaneously losing business. At this time, prices for goods were high, but availability was still steady. Then in June 2021, the broken supply chain seeped into northwest Missouri. Prices rose further as scarcity set in. Today, Neff organizes papers at his desk, waiting for tires he ordered two months ago. His customers have been patient with him, he said, and they seem to understand the situation everyone has been placed in.
SEE SCHOOL | A4
SEE SHORTAGE | A4
SIDNEY LOWRY News Editor | @sidney_lowry
KENDRICK CALFEE | NW MISSOURIAN
Simply Siam employee Eric Chang prepares a to-go order during the lunch hour Nov. 16. The restaurant had to increase its menu prices 10% after food costs at its suppliers tripled over the course of two months.
KENDRICK CALFEE | NW MISSOURIAN
Two truck drivers pull into Gray’s Truck Stop & Restaurant for fuel Nov. 15. Gray’s is one of several local restaurants feeling the weight of hiked food costs and limited availability for products during a supply chain shortage.
Spike in COVID-19 cases mirrors 2020 holiday season COMPARING ACTIVE COVID-19 CASES IN NOVEMBER 2020 AND 2021 400
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GRAPHIC BY MAKAYLA POLAK DESIGN EDITOR
NATHAN ENGLISH Managing Editor | @nathan_3nglish
As Thanksgiving draws near, northwest Missouri is in the midst of a COVID-19 spike not seen since the 2020 holiday season. Nodaway County has 142 active cases of the virus in the county, as of Nov. 15, and is second overall in all Missouri counties in cases per 100,000 residents, at the time of publication. “It’s not good; it’s not where you want to be,” said Tom Patterson administrator for the Nodaway County Health Department. The hope the county was on the downward slope of its November spike was dashed when 27 people tested positive for COVID-19 Nov. 15. It’s the most county residents who have tested positive in a single day in 356 days.
From Oct. 15 to Nov. 15, active cases in the county rose 358%. The positivity rate for the virus in the county has jumped from around 9% to nearly 17% in the last week. Patterson and Nate Blackford, president of Mosaic - Maryville, both said they are concerned about the cases but are more concerned about what could possibly follow — hospitalizations. “That’s what makes it difficult for us to care not only for COVID patients, but those who need every other kind of care as well,” Blackford said. Hospitalizations, which are typically a lagging indicator, normally spike two weeks or more after the initial spike in cases, Patterson said.
SEE SPIKE | A4
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