Where have all the Twinkies gone?

A strike by a group of Teamsters at the Interstate Breads Corp. (IBC) plant in Biddleton, Maine has pinched local supplies of Hostess, Wonderbread, Nissen and other bakery products throughout New England, clearing area merchants' shelves and forcing Harvard University Dining Services to look to new sources for its bread.

"Everybody's worried about their Twinkies," said Bill J. Turkewitz, the business agent for Teamsters Local 340 of Maine.

He said the now week-old strike, which initially involved about 1,400 union members, shows no sign of ending in the near future.

Earlier this week, Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS) began posting signs in the dining halls explaining that a bread shortage had caused HUDS to substitute its normal bread selection with different brands.

The signs do not mention the Teamsters strike.

The majority of the dining halls' sandwich bread, buns and English muffins are normally made by Nissen.

Campus Executive Chef Michael Miller said HUDS was able to find replacement products quickly enough to avoid a noticeable disruption in service