Ah, November.  The time to paddle through rivers of gravy streaming on landslides of mashed potatoes and, of course…TURKEY.  Lots and lots of turkey.

But this year wasn’t as traditional as previous Thanksgivings for some Tyrone Area School District students. The elementary school students didn’t have their Thanksgiving turkey at school this year.

Sounds unthinkable.  Maybe even downright un-American?

But it’s true.

Tyrone’s food service director Andrew Smith was not able to get enough turkeys to feed the entire flock of TASD students.

Blame it on the bird flu.

Large poultry producers were hit by the worst case of avian flu in US history earlier this year resulting in the death of more than 48 million birds. About 7.5 million of them were turkeys.

And while the shortages caused by the bird flu did not affect consumers at the grocery store, it did put the pinch on the Tyrone Area Elementary School.

According to Smith,  government regulations prohibit him from buying his turkeys retail and because his distributors had no more turkeys, he was stuck.

“Unfortunately manufactures sell more birds to stores instead of providing bulk to [school] districts. Our distributor hasn’t been able to get a large stock pile,” said Smith.

Smith said that he tried to get as many birds as possible and was able get enough turkey for the high school and the middle school but the elementary students were, unfortunately, stuck with ham.

Smith said other districts were struggling to purchase enough turkeys to feed their students as well.

According to first grade teacher Renee Jamison, some of her students were disappointed.

First grade student Collin said that he was “really bummed” because he just wanted turkey. “Ham isn’t a Thanksgiving food, it’s for Easter,” said Collin.

“A majority of my students were bummed because the chicken patty option was also off the table,”  said Jamison.

But the meal wasn’t a complete bust for Jamison’s students because all the traditional “fixings” were still there.

“The kids said it was still good because they at least had mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, and corn,” said Jamison, “They were also jazzed because they had options with either whipped cream or no whipped cream on their pumpkin pie.”

Other elementary students didn’t seem to notice.

“I didn’t hear any complaints from the students that I work with, but I did hear a few teachers asking why we were breaking from tradition,” added elementary teacher Sara Jackson.

While high school students were not affected, many were disappointed for the young students when they heard the news.

Junior Mikey Cherry was shocked.  “I didn’t even know about the shortage,” said Cherry, “I mean, you can have ham… but is that really the substitute?”

Senior Sarah Isenberg and freshman Tyler Gunsallus were livid.  “I’ll go out and shoot [a turkey] myself,” said Isenberg.

While most students seemed disappointed by the news, others were taking it in stride.

Senior Anslee Walk was more than happy with just mashed potatoes and corn.

And, of course, there was still pumpkin pie (with or without whipped cream!).