Acquiring Food During a Pandemic

[danbrotherston]

I don't have a car, so I'm really not sure how a curbside pickup order would work from these places, I've also noticed some of them will not delivery to multi-residential buildings. It's kind of put me off those options.

Biking to roadside stalls is a great idea, I did at one point locate the OK Egg farm, but I'm not sure if they would have a roadside stall. The one weakness of this is the likely need for cash.

I will probably try instacart at some point, the frozen foods tip is a good one, but that is too bad, since frozen veggies is how I've avoided shopping for a month. I've noticed delivery slots are more available now, so perhaps things are getting more settled.

In the places I've done curbside pickup the process is always to call when you arrive, and let the person know which numbered spot you are in. In those circumstances my expectation would be to take a spot with the bike, and just let the person know on the phone that I'm riding and they can place the package down and I'll pack it into my bags myself. I think accommodating cyclists will take a little bit of practice, but I expect most places will be able to make it workable. I think the largest barrier is cargo space. I certainly wouldn't have been able to ride my Stemmler's order home but that was a "stock the freezer for the summer" sort of trip for us.

Cash is problematic, I agree. I figure in most cases I'll try to fill my basket up enough to get things to a point where I'm comfortable rounding up, which isn't something everyone will be able to do. At some point the right thing for their businesses may very well be to accept cashless transactions, and technologies with clear business value can be adopted by mennonite communities more readily than technologies for personal use. I think a lot of market stalls, even Mennonite-owned and run, were already accepting transactions. With fully wireless pin pads like those used by delivery services as long as there's cell phone coverage they wouldn't even need electricity or internet access on the farm itself.

I have no idea what is actually practical for small downtown grocers like Full Circle or Legacy Greens, but if you had a significant order of frozen items they might be able to help get those items in via their distributors perhaps?

Yeah, I'm hoping it would be no problem...just remembering issues going through drivethroughs without a car.

As for cargo space...that just sounds like a challenge .

Good tip on Downtown grocers too...and I certainly don't mind supporting them.