The Vegetarian Resource Group Blog

VEGAN SHOPPING DURING THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC: WHAT ARE YOUR EXPERIENCES?

Posted on April 21, 2020 by The VRG Blog Editor

One reader wrote us that The Vegetarian Resource Group should now have a campaign against people being vegetarian and vegan as all the natural foods products like Amy’s were gone from his supermarket’s shelves. He was having a hard time finding what he normally bought as others were finally concerned about staying healthy and hoarded the veggie foods. He jokingly said we need others to eat more animal foods. (This is tongue in cheek of course. It reminds us of one of our members in the 1980’s who said he would stop being vegetarian when everyone else started becoming vegetarian, as he wanted to be different. He’s still vegetarian of course.)

A former staff member had a different experience. She said: “I thought of you the other day because I stopped in at the supermarket and every ice cream on the shelf was gone except the vegan ones! I had a field day stocking up and was remembering all of our VRG vegan ice cream tests in the office.”

And one of our former interns living in hunting country said about her market: “Everything pretty empty down here as well…except the vegan section,” and sent a picture of the vegan deli slices left. We’re sure she’ll eventually scoop those up.

One member was trying to have produce delivered to her 85-year-old mom in Florida. Publix, which is the main supermarket down there, at first said they had a four day backlog in delivering, and then said they weren’t taking orders. A local produce market wasn’t delivering as they were short on food. The shopping cart at Whole Foods/Amazon site wouldn’t take orders for quite some time. After three days and nights of trying, finally they found a window to place a Prime order, and it arrived at her mom’s the same day. And as an emergency order, Edible Arrangements came through with a box of fresh produce and vegetables. By mistake they also showed up with some balloons, but that brought some smiles.

What are your shopping experiences?

0 to “VEGAN SHOPPING DURING THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC: WHAT ARE YOUR EXPERIENCES?”

  1. Lori Girshick says:

    I have not used any home delivery service but I did continue to order food through VitaCost.com. I have been able to continue all my organic food, gluten-free, and vegan (of course). I have gone to the grocery stores (with mask and gloves). Except for shortages of paper products and in the first week or two shortages of things like canned beans and such, I found plenty of fresh veggies everywhere and plenty of vegan food for a pantry. I don’t usually stock up like that because I eat a whole foods diet and cook all the time. There was a shortage of tofu at first. I also buy almost no frozen foods. Overall, I had more anxiety than warranted because at the beginning it was stressful, wondering how bad it would be. But, it has worked out for me.

  2. Susan Johnson says:

    You wrote about MisfitsMarket.com in a previous issue and I signed up. It’s been a blessing to get organic produce down here in Florida! Thanks:)



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