Kickstart: Blame hackers, not packaging supply chain snarls, for cream cheese shortage

If you're a holiday baker, or just a fan of bagels, you may have heard that there's a cream cheese shortage.

The New York Times reports that bagel shops in the city have only a few days' supply on hand with "no end in sight" for when conditions improve.

Some of those problems are linked to shipping logistics that have impacted store shelves for months due to a lack of drivers and trucks — and as Cornell University agricultural economist Andrew Novakovic told Bloomberg, dairy shipments require an extra license to transport produce from farms to processors to store shelves.

Packaging issues also are getting part of the blame, with Novakovic noting plastic film and cardboard have been hard to access.

But the biggest problem may be linked to digital rather than dairy woes. Wisconsin's Schreiber Foods, which supplies cheese slices to burger restaurants and rivals Kraft Foods for the volume of cream cheese it produces, was hit by a cyberattack just as it was ramping up processing for the holiday demand.

The company was forced to shut down lines for a few days, Bloomberg reported. A company spokeswoman said it has since maximized production, but the closures already have rippled along the supply chain.

Demand for face shields and clear plastic barriers may be on the rise again.

Part of that, obviously, is due to increasing COVID-19 rates as winter sets in. But in addition, grocery and other retail workers are asking store owners to resume requirements for masks and social distancing.

United Food and Commercial Workers — the largest union for retail workers in the U.S. — sent an open letter to the CEOs of 63 leading grocery store chains calling for "five key measures to address the growing challenges essential workers face."

Topping the list: requiring all visitors to wear face coverings, supplying free personal protective equipment and enforcing social distancing rules.

"For nearly two years, the threat of COVID-19 has persisted and evolved, even as many of America's largest food and retail companies have relaxed their safety measures," UFCW International President Marc Perrone wrote. "With the new COVID-19 winter surge and emergence of the omicron variant, it is critical for our nation's largest retail and food employers ... to take immediate steps to protect essential workers and members of the public during this holiday season."

UFCW says 213 workers have died and more than 50,000 have been infected or exposed to COVID-19 since it arrived in the U.S.

Two key Toyota Motor Corp. suppliers are joining the automaker in providing more than $800,000 in support to communities impacted by storms and tornadoes in the Southern and Midwestern U.S. on Dec. 11 and 12.

Toyota Motor North America announced Dec. 14 that it will supply $500,000 in "immediate relief and long-term recovery in Kentucky," while Denso North America — a supplier of under-the-hood and functional parts including plastics — will provide another $250,000 through its nonprofit organizations. Toyota Tsusho America, a logistics and subassembly supplier to the carmaker, will provide another $60,000.

Georgetown, Ky., is home to Toyota's largest assembly plant. The company said earlier that its facility was not damaged in the storms.