How grocery stores restock shelves in the age of coronavirus

Local, New York City dive bar, Forgtmenot, had to pivot its business in the wake of COVID-19. Once a popular bar, now is a mini-mart, providing access to groceries for the community. With familial ties to a supermarket in Queens, the Lower East Side dive is able to access the supply chain and provide a less crowded, more community-driven alternative to the larger grocery stores.

Chicago-based Closed Loop Farms, dependent on farmers markets, had to pivot to online sales with the closure of many public spaces as a response to COVID-19. Running a virtual farmers market, the local grower also sells sustainable, local products from other Chicago businesses. People are able to order their fresh produce, honey, and kombucha online and have it delivered to their door.

After the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted seafood supply chains, several organizations in the New England region took steps to connect fishermen’s catches with the local community. For example, the Rhode Island–based nonprofit, Eating with the Ecosystem, distributed nearly 72,000 pounds of seafood — including lesser-known species like scup, hake, quahogs, and conger eel — with the help of local organizations to multicultural communities. "I think it's really important we become more aware of what's actually in our ecosystem, all these diverse species,” said the nonprofit’s program manager.

As the COVID-19 pandemic hit and grocery store shelves became bare, many consumers sought to purchase meat directly from farmers. The Shop Kansas Farms group on Facebook has more than 148,000 members with about 800 producers who are selling their goods. While there needs to be more education for farmers on how to sell their livestock and for consumers on the intricacies of buying from processors, people in other states are creating their own groups to better connect consumers to vendors.

To weather the uncertainties of the pandemic and geopolitical trade disputes, many small, locally-operated fisheries in the United States have upended the way they do business by selling their catches directly to consumers. For example, OC Wild Seafood in California started to sell its spiny lobsters locally. Though the logistics and regulations can make fish-to-dish initiatives challenging, many community-supported fisheries saw an increase in sales and customers in 2020.

As the spread of COVID-19 forced residents of Bengaluru into lockdown, farmers had to get creative to sell their goods and turned to social media channels to directly connect to consumers. For example, the Farm to Fork Bangalore Facebook page allowed a grape grower to sell about 400 kilograms of his crops that otherwise would have gone to waste. While direct-selling can be challenging for those who are not in urban centers, many farmers are rethinking their business models.

When the Bay Area issued a shelter-in-place order as a response to containing the spread of COVID-19, businesses had to adapt. From a local distillery creating hand sanitizer at cost, to a restaurant offering groceries, to a catering business selling drive-through meals, local businesses have gotten creative to maintain revenue and pay employees.

The food-supply business is known for exploitative pay and poor working conditions. But Brooklyn Packers, a Black-owned cooperative launched in 2016, pays its owner-workers and vendors fair wages and is founded on traditions in the Black community of food sovereignty and mutual aid. Those values paid off at the start of the pandemic, when demand for fresh produce deliveries exploded. Brooklyn Packers retooled its business model to meet the demand, showing that a non-hierarchical business can move quickly.

After restaurants closed due to COVID-19 and tariffs were implemented on exports to China, fishermen and women in the United States had to shift their business model to sell directly to consumers. For example, Get Hooked, a subscription-based community-supported fishery in California that delivers daily catches to customers, saw their business double after the pandemic hit. This new model allows home cooks to support local suppliers and explore new foods.

Catch Together is supporting both fishermen and food banks by buying catch that would typically be sold to the restaurant industry. Fisheries were hit hard when the pandemic resulted in an economic slowdown and food banks had an increasing need for resources. Innovative programs have been launched in Mississippi and Alaska where local, fresh fish has been served to demographics that typically don’t have the access to it.