The pandemic has pushed us to rethink the ways we get our food, shifting from supermarkets to super-local farms and delivery services. Will it stick?
The grocery store was my friend Maria’s happy place. She would head there daily after dropping her kids at daycare, picked up something for dinner, some fruit, a pint of ice cream. Then COVID-19 happened.
Weeks of panic buying, followed by months of empty shelves and long lines, made getting food an experience infused with fear, anxiety and sadness. Now, we all avoid eye contact! As a result, many shoppers changed their buying habits — and that’s what Maria did.
Today, her produce comes from a local farm. A community supported fishery delivers fish, and the smoothies her kids love so much automatically arrive at her door every four weeks. For pantry staples and other grocery store items, she orders from Amazon Prime.
It’s all an effort to make shopping a contactless experience, but it also gave her the push to sit back and reexamine her choices: to purchase from companies and farmers that are doing good in their communities, stay mindful of the environment, and buy local, in-season food when possible. This high-tech, slow-food hybrid means that she gets ingredients that are fresh and delicious, responsibly produced and also “joyfull”, she says!
It wasn’t just Maria that wanted to avoid the crowds. Between March and June, online grocery sales in the U.S. jumped 80% from $4 billion to $7.2 billion — according to grocery analyst firm Brick Meets Click. By June, 22% of U.S. adults were ordering online for delivery or pickup. More producers, like small-scale farms and local growers, began connecting with consumers through e-commerce — functioning as virtual farmer’s markets and, in some cases, selling food once destined for restaurants.
There are pros and cons of shopping this way. It forces you to plan out meals and purchase the things you need in a more thoughtful way. The downside is (you guessed it) cost. To be able to afford the extra delivery fees for grocery orders, prices had to be adjusted.
For many, this luxury is not an option. Before the pandemic began, an estimated 1 in 9 Americans didn’t have access to enough food on a regular basis. That number has skyrocketed during the crisis. The nonprofit Feeding America has seen an increase of 60% in demand at its food banks compared to last year, and 4 in 10 people served between March and June were new to food assistance.
Some subscription services do have charitable arms, like Thrive Market’s Thrive Gives, which uses member donations to subsidize purchases for families in need. Federal nutrition programs such as SNAP , also launched an online program. Retailers are limited, but it’s a step toward making hands-off shopping more accessible to all.
When the pandemic is finally over, there will be some return to normal. Online slow-food shopping will wane as some people make frequent supermarket runs part of their routine again.
But many shoppers, like my friend, discovered that there’s value in supporting smaller, often local businesses — for the food and also for the community.
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