Hanover Co-op Food Stores' Covid Update for Wednesday, March 18

As mentioned yesterday, ensuring a safe and steady supply of food is among the highest priorities of our food cooperative. Keeping you up-to-date is also central to our mission.

NOTE: Yesterday I mentioned that I would send a daily update (M – F) between approximately 3:00 and 4:00 p.m., During the coming days, we will send a release, even if just to say, “nothing has changed.” It is our sincere hope that things will settle down to the point where updates are published only on an as-needed basis.

Changes to operations and news about our immediate efforts to serve our communities:

We are eliminating weekend car repairs at both Co-op Auto Service Centers. Each location will maintain normal service hours Monday - Friday. Self-service gas and diesel is available as usual at our Hanover-South Park Street location for automated sales from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Our Merchandising and Operations Teams are:

• Focusing extra effort on ordering essential products for our four stores. We still have a good supply of fresh food and shelf-stable items. For the time being, our teams are reducing the level of specialty items they order so that warehouse delivery trucks have space for the things our customers need most.
• Working to have at least 2-3 distributors we can depend on for backups. Establishing multiple warehouses in our local and regional supply chain is another top priority for us.

Changes to our events calendar:

1. The Hanover Co-op’s Annual Meeting is shifting to an online format this year. The meeting will be held Saturday, April 4, beginning at 10 a.m. Details are here http://coopfoodstore.coop/annual-meeting.
2. We’ve canceled all in-person classes at the Co-op Learning Center for the time being. However, we are planning to hold our soil series ONLINE. Learn more here: http://coopfoodstore.coop/climate-and-community-resilience-lessons-soil

Here is a brief recap of our 3/17 update in case you didn't see it:

• Our three largest stores (Hanover, Lebanon, White River Junction) will use the first hour of each business day (7 a.m. to 8 a.m.) to serve the needs of customers at the highest risk, or those shopping on their behalf during this pandemic. The remainder of the day – from 8 a.m. until closing, our stores will be open for all shoppers. (Includes adults 60 and older, those with chronic or underlying health conditions, pregnant or breastfeeding women.
• Our four stores will offer prepared food pre-packaged and for take-out only. Our café seating areas are closed. We plan to offer a broad array of foods pre-packaged in our self-serve cases.

Please know that we have pledged to go above-and-beyond and do everything we can to take care of our staff and their families. They are at the heart of our community-owned cooperative.

Feel free to forward this information to people you feel might benefit from receiving our updates.

The Hanover Co-op’s website is also a source of timely information.