From the struggle to find employees to dine-in restrictions, restaurants have faced a wave of challenges since the pandemic began and have had to make adjustments to stay afloat.

A disposable foam shortage has made things a bit more difficult. At Tyler’s Barbeque, owner Tyler Frazier said they have made adjustments to keep things running smoothly.

"So some of the solutions that we have done, is we have gone to a plastic cup that is not disposable and we are rewashing them," Frazier said. "So, we are looking at alternative sources for our to-go containers also, along with every other small restaurant in the country,"

He said it began during the pandemic shutdowns, when national chains shifted the bulk of their business from dine-in to take-out, and invaded the market, squeezing out the small business owners.

"That is where a lot of imported things where the people that were quick-service food industry people had all of their products are sitting in the docks or are in transit or aren’t producing them," said Frazier. "So, that has caused a shift in the paradigm. For us here, that means our [disposable foam] cups, the first part of the summer, they told us we would no longer be able to get printed cups because the manufacturer dart would not going to be able to produce them.

"So, what happened was we had a shift where the national guys come in and they have taken over the domestic supply of [disposable foam]."

Which leaves almost all local businesses struggling to get the needed supplies.

Something Tiffany Confer, owner of HTeaO on Hillside, said they are dealing with as well.

They are having a tough time getting 44-ounce disposable foam cups.

"We’ve had to go down to a 40-ounce plastic cup which affects our sales because the 40-ounce cup is cheaper than the 44-ounce [disposable foam] is so it does affect our bottom line sales," Confer said.

For a business that relies on drink sales, this had made things a struggle.

"Cups have probably been the most detrimental for us as far as how we’ve been affected by the pandemic," said Confer.

Branch Manager at Mayfield Paper Company Phil Banner said one of the biggest disposable foam cup manufacturers nationwide - Dart – had roughly 150,000 employees.

Since the pandemic, that number has gone down to about 15,000.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The original version of this story referred to the disposable foam used to make restaurant implements as "Styrofoam", which has since been corrected.