With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to weigh heavily on our economy and healthcare system, many Americans have become concerned about whether their food and household supplies are sanitary when they arrive at the store. Experts don’t believe COVID-19 is easily spread through objects, but it does make you think a little harder about how and where you’re getting your weekly groceries. Career changes due to the pandemic may also have you tightening up your budget and closely scrutinizing where you spend your income.
If COVID-19 has you thinking twice about your food purchases from large grocers like Cub or Whole Foods, consider shopping locally. It’s better for your family and for the community.
Shopping Locally Supports the Minnesota Economy
Minnesota closed non-essential businesses for several months to stop the spread of COVID-19. In addition, we were all urged to stay home and avoid leisure activities. As a result, many Minnesotans’ incomes have been affected and we’re putting less money into the local economy. Many Minnesotans have been using nationwide grocery delivery services to have their food delivered each week, which means that companies like Amazon are making a profit. By purchasing your groceries from local companies and grocery stores, you’re ensuring the money you earned in Minnesota is supporting our local businesses.
You’ll Know Who’s Come Into Contact with Your Food
We don’t often think about how many times our produce is handled before it reaches us: it’s harvested, processed, packed into crates or boxes, loaded onto trucks, driven cross-state or cross-country, and finally unloaded and stocked at the grocery store. If just one person – one link in the production process – doesn’t follow proper cleanliness protocol, you could end up with an unsanitary product in your grocery haul.
Of course, this shouldn’t incite fear in you; even once you’ve gotten your produce home, you can clean it thoroughly prior to chopping it up for dinner. In this way, you can prevent many of the most common food-borne illnesses. But by purchasing your food locally, you can cut down on the lengthy supply chain; in our case, you’re getting your gourmet organic mushrooms straight from the source.
At R&R Cultivation, our employees have been using food service and medical grade gloves and surgical masks since the inception of the company to keep our mushroom grow rooms clean and sanitized. Our employees follow stringent guidelines to ensure they are sanitary whenever they come into contact with the mushrooms. We will continue to produce minimally handled organic produce using sanitized equipment during the pandemic, so you can be sure your food is safe.
You Can Make Connections in Your Community During an Isolating Time
We all know by now we’re not supposed to be making recreational trips to Target to peruse the home goods department. But since we’ve all got to eat, purchasing groceries is definitely an essential task. And when you visit R&R Cultivation at one of the Twin Cities’ many farmers’ markets, you’ll be able to connect with community members while completing an essential weekly task.
Regardless of which of us is representing R&R at the market that day, we’ll be happy to answer all your questions about our mushrooms and how they’re grown. We’re proud of our local grow rooms in New Hope, Minnesota, and we enjoy talking about the hard work and care that goes into each batch of gourmet mushrooms we produce. When you choose to get some fresh air and do your shopping at a market, you’ll build connections with the employees of local businesses and do your part to stimulate the Minnesota economy.
R&R Cultivation’s mushrooms can be found at a number of farmers’ markets around the Twin Cities. You can also purchase our locally grown organic mushrooms online.