I looked for Dane, my favorite clerk, but didn’t see him. When the shelter-in-place order came down, I thought of him. He and his wife have a four-year-old daughter, and I wondered if they used day care, and if so, whether it were interrupted.
That came back to mind when I read that Minnesota and Vermont have added grocery store employees to their lists of “essential or emergency workers.” This makes them eligible for the free child care that those states are organizing, much of it in now-empty schools. (They’re taking safety measures, such as no more than 10 children in a room at any time.)
I hope other states do this. I especially hope that they follow the lead of Vermont, which includes “others involved in the food supply chain,” like food plant workers, as essential.
So far virtually none of the food manufacturers we’ve contacted for our coronavirus coverage have reported any absences. Some, like Perdue Farms, are promising to keep employees on the payroll if they have to shut down a plant due to coronavirus.
Those of us who are able to “shelter in place” all day owe a lot to those workers who have to labor in proximity to each other – and, in the case of grocery workers, to random strangers – to keep us fed. I hope more state governments will step up to make their lives at least a little easier during this awful time.
Pan Demetrakakes is a Senior Editor for Food Processing and has been a business journalist since 1992, mostly covering various aspects of the food production and supply chain, including processing, packaging, distribution and retailing. Learn more about him or contact him
