A caterer for the Henty Machinery Field Days says some food sheds might have to come up with more creative options than selling hot chips due to product supply issues this year.
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Henty Public School P and C catering association chairperson Heidi Weston said the group could sell 300 kilograms of hot chips between its two sheds over the three day event, but this year supply was affected.
"The problem is there's been COVID obviously and there's been no Field Days for a couple of years, so these big events have been unheard of for the last couple of years and now there is a shortage of workers, and now a shortage of supply," she said.
"So they (chip suppliers) can supply their cafes and their footy clubs and whatever else they supply during the week, from a week to week basis, but obviously big events like this they don't have the supply and they don't have the man power either to do the workload.
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"We have now got hold of a supplier who will supply us, but the problem is that the supplier that used to supply us used to supply all the food sheds out there, and it looks like we're sort of all trying to get a different supplier so we don't have that problem, because I think this one supplier can't manage the whole quantity."
Ms Weston said at previous Field Days a supplier would be on site to stock up the group's chip supply if they were running short, but this year the Association would have to pre-buy three days worth of chips in advance, which came with storage issues.
"We're looking at hiring a freezer truck to put our bulk chips," she said.
"And I think there is stock issues, apparently oil's going to be a problem too, so it's a bit of a new way of what we're going to have to do.
"We'll just have to be clever and come up with some different ideas, I think, if we can't [store enough] chips."
About 14 commercial food vendors and seven permanent food sheds on site run by community groups will serve food at the Field Days.
HMFD chief executive Belinda Anderson said she thought there'd be enough of a supply of hot chips, but the cost might be higher.
"I've never had to worry about that side of things until this year," she said.
"I think it was 2018, our big food shed here went through a tonne of chips, so to have that extra [cost] on top of something that is already in short supply is where the difficulty comes in for our community groups.
"There will be food, it just may not be the bucket of hot chips you always wanted, and I'm sure these community groups are great caterers, so I'm sure they will adapt and still have a great offering."
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