by Kirsten Moore, Cooperative Services Director
March marks the one year anniversary of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. While that is truly unfortunate, the science around COVID-19 prevention has evolved, and every day we learn more about how to keep ourselves and each other safe while the pandemic continues. With a national vaccination drive underway and far from complete, we still have a responsibility to keep the Co-op a safe place to work and shop. If shopping online for pickup or delivery is not an option for you, public health experts recommend the following for shoppers in store:
• Planning ahead so that you can spend the least amount of time in the store as possible, and rescheduling your visit if you are sick or feeling unwell
• Keeping six feet of distance from others when you shop
• Wearing a proper face covering
• Avoiding touching your eyes, mouth, and nose
• Wiping down the handles of shopping carts or baskets before you shop (we have wipes for this)
• Practicing good hand hygiene, including washing your hands when you get home and after groceries are put away.
Please Reuse Bags When You Shop the Co-op
We now know that avoiding reusable bags is not necessary to prevent COVID-19. Last month we put out a reminder that reusable bags are welcome again at the Co-op, and also good for the Co-op! In addition to keeping disposable bags out of the landfill, reusing bags supports our bottom line while supporting your neighbors at the same time.
For every reusable bag you use, the Co-op saves 10¢ for the Double Dollars Fund. The Double Dollars Fund provides Double Dollars incentive vouchers at the Co-op and participating local farmers’ markets. The vouchers encourage those using Wisconsin FoodShare/QUEST in our community to shop locally by providing matching vouchers when participants use their EBT cards for their Co-op groceries or farmers’ market purchases. Saving 10¢ for the Double Dollars Fund to support shoppers with low income is a much better use of Co-op funds than spending 17¢ on a disposable paper bag (or 34¢ on double bagging, which is often necessary). Your bag reuse really adds up to make a difference.
It Is Safe To Reuse Bags
Reusable bags were used 63% more prior to the pandemic than they are being used today, and that is because we stopped accepting reusable bags for several months based on former guidance and orders from state and local public health officials. At the beginning of the pandemic, it was unclear how the COVID-19 virus spread, and it was widely thought that surfaces played a larger role in COVID-19 transmission. The science has since evolved, and the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says “the risk of infection by the virus from food products, food packaging, or bags is thought to be very low.” In fact, Public Health Madison and Dane County encourages businesses to support the use of reusable bags. In a recent FoodFacts newsletter distributed to the industry: “customer use of reusable bags is not likely to increase the chance of COVID-19 transmission above the risks that are already present in [retail] environments.”
We Will Pack Your Reusable Bags To Keep The Lines Moving
When we wrote about accepting reusable bags in February, one customer wrote in to say that they would love to reuse bags, but they were concerned that bagging them on their own would slow down the lines. We also noticed this when we started accepting reusable bags again, but refrained from bagging them ourselves. This past month, we started packing your reusable bags.
When we first started allowing reusable bags, the recommendations available to grocers suggested that while we could allow bag reuse, it was still a good idea for employees to refrain from touching reusable bags. Presently, we know that this is not necessary. As long as we are practicing good hand hygiene and regularly cleaning the register lanes, handling reusable bags is no different than handling the other objects placed on the register that have also been touched by others.
Allowing us to pack your reusable bags will better prioritize steps that play a more tangible role in preventing COVID-19’s spread, such as keeping the lines at the checkouts moving and minimizing close contact between others. You will be able to move through the lines much faster when we begin to bag groceries for you while you are still unloading your cart. We hope that our move back to packing your reusable bags will further encourage you to use them!
We Accept Reusable Produce Bags Too
Since we are now packing your reusable bags, we are also able to accept reusable produce bags. As long as they are clean, there is no difference between the two types of bags for our cashiers to handle. Reusable produce bags are also good for the environment and good for the Co-op’s financial outlook, as prices for plastic and home compostable produce bags have recently increased.
All Reusable Bags Should Be Clean When You Bring Them to the Store
The risk of getting COVID-19 from surfaces is so low that both the WHO and CDC report that there have been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 transmitted by touching food, food packaging, or shopping bags. But, that doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to spread COVID-19 or other germs from reusable bags. According to the National Institute of Health, COVID-19 survival is longest in aspirate, substantially less on impervious surfaces like plastic and steel, and shortest on porous paper, cardboard, and cloth.
That is why it is important that we keep the register lanes clean, and keep washing our hands and using hand sanitizer when handling your groceries and your bags. That’s also why you should practice good hand hygiene and also keep your bags clean. Washing reusable bags is not only a good practice for COVID-19 prevention, but it’s a good food safety practice as well.
Tips for Keeping Reusable Bags Clean
The CDC currently recommends cleaning reusable bags before each use according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Many public health officials across the country also cite the instructions provided by the American Cleaning Institute as best practices for reusable bag maintenance and food safety:
• Wiping the inside of insulated bags with a disinfectant or sanitizer, especially along the seams
• Labeling and using separate bags for raw meats, seafood, and produce
• Keeping food bags separate from non-food bags
• Making sure bags are fully dry prior to storing
• Storing bags not in use in a cool, dry environment, with good air circulation
• Refraining from storing unused bags outside or in a car trunk that does not have good temperature or moisture control
Reusable bags are meant to last a long time, but they too have a shelf life and can become too worn to continue using. For more information about safe bag reuse and tips for cleaning certain types of bags, download the American Cleaning Institute’s “GRUB Flyer” here: www.cleaninginstitute.org/sites/default/files/assets/1/AssetManager/GRUB_flyer.pdf.
Good Times To Shop
If you are interested in avoiding crowds, you’ll be happy to note that there are online resources available to help you decide when to shop. Our website now has the ability to tell you how busy each store is in real time. We recently started using a program called SafeCount to monitor customer counts and we are now confident it can provide you a good idea of current capacity. You can now find generalized live capacity information on our website’s homepage, where the store locations and phone numbers are listed. (See below.) This tool can support your decisions for coming to the store right away, and for getting out of your car if you arrive in inclement weather and think that there might be a crowd to avoid.
Planning ahead to shop? Our Google Business listing has you covered, as they track popular times and can help you plan to shop on a schedule.
• Willy East—open 8am-8pm, http://g.page/WSC-east
• Willy North—open 8am-9pm, http://g.page/WSC-north
• Willy West—open 8am-8pm, http://g.page/WSC-west
Shopping when the Co-op is slower means you will have better luck social distancing in the store, and it will support our employees in serving you more efficiently when there are fewer crowds. Also, we are still reserving hours before 10am for seniors and those who are immunocompromised, and we adjust capacity down during those times.
Thank You For Wearing Proper Face Coverings
This past month, Public Health Madison and Dane County adjusted their definitions of proper face coverings with the issuance of Emergency Order 13. Face coverings are currently defined as “two or more layers of breathable fabric that is tightly woven (i.e. fabrics that do not let light pass through when held up to a light source). A face covering does not include bandanas, single layer neck gaiters, face shields, goggles, scarves, ski masks, balaclavas, shirt or sweater collars pulled up over the mouth and nose, or masks with slits, exhalation valves, or punctures.” As per those orders, and as preferred by our Board, management, and the employees’ union, proper face coverings that fully cover the mouth and nose are still required for all employees, customers, and business partners on Co-op property. If you have a medical condition that inhibits your ability to wear a proper face covering, you may speak with a Manager On Duty to learn what modifications to policy can be made to access our offerings. On behalf of all of us working for the Co-op, especially those of us who are here for full working days almost every single day, we thank all of you who have done your part to keep our employees and other customers safe by following the County’s orders while shopping in our stores and wearing your face coverings.
COVID-19 Vaccinations
The Co-op believes in the general safety and effectiveness of vaccination against COVID-19 and influenza, and we encourage employee vaccination to support a healthy workplace and a healthy community. Last fall, we offered on-site flu vaccination clinics for employees enrolled in our healthcare provided by Group Health Cooperative (GHC), and we will continue to offer support and opportunities for employees to get vaccinated and learn about prevention of the flu and COVID-19. In addition to the standard and extended COVID-19 leave options already available to employees, the Co-op has negotiated with the employees’ union flexible leave options for receiving COVID-19 vaccinations when they are eligible to receive them. We are also working with GHC to see if there are options to offer the vaccine on-site for employees. At the time of writing, the Co-op had already pre-registered eligibility with Public Health Madison and Dane County and were awaiting further information and instruction to be provided. None of our employees were eligible to receive the vaccine based on employment at the Co-op (some may have been eligible to receive it for other reasons such as age). The State was anticipating opening up vaccinations to workers who qualify for Tier 1B around March 1. We hope to be able to report more regarding vaccinations and our ability to support employees who want to receive them next month.
A Brighter Future
What a difference a year makes. We have come a long way from constant long lines outside the stores, completely empty bulk aisles, only offering you paper bags to pack your groceries, and not being able to have all of our registers open. Because of the resiliency and creativity of the people who work here and our dedicated shoppers who have stuck with us throughout the pandemic, we have been able to maximize the capacity of our online shopping, pickup, and delivery options; provide safe social distancing as much as possible; maintain compliance with face covering guidelines; and evolve our thinking and practices around surfaces and the spread of COVID-19. Our work is not done, and together, we have learned so much. We appreciate the continued efforts of local officials to vaccinate our community, and we look forward to the time when we can offer a freer, more interactive cooperative experience once again. This one year anniversary is nothing to celebrate, but at least we can continue to celebrate working together for a brighter future.