To help alleviate supermarket food shortages due to the new coronavirus COVID-19, Baldor Specialty Foods is making home deliveries available to people in a 50-mile radius of its Bronx, N.Y. headquarters — an area that’s home to 18.5 million people.
Baldor, a fresh produce importer and foodservice wholesaler that has customers in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic, began the service March 18.
The new consumer service provides convenient deliveries for people working at home, whether through company policy or self-quarantine, according to a news release.
With a minimum order of $250, tax and delivery included, Baldor is delivering fresh produce and other food staples, so people can avoid trips to the store and potentially exposing themselves to the virus.
The service will be available until the end of this health crisis.
“With a state-of-the-art food distribution chain already in place, it only makes sense to put it to good use, delivering our high-quality produce and specialty items to the consumers staying at home, doing their part to thwart the pandemic by practicing social distancing and isolation,” Baldor CEO TJ Murphy said in the release.
It’s an unprecedented move for the 28-year-old wholesaler, which has served restaurants and other foodservice establishments exclusively up to this point. The company plans to use its e-commerce site, trucks, drivers, food processing facility and network of farms and specialty food vendors to serve consumers.
Orders made before midnight will be delivered the next day.
The food distributor does have a consumer brand, Urban Roots, sold at the retail level.
“We have never considered doing this before,” Murphy said in the release. “But in times of crisis, everything must be put on the table and considered. Our main priority is to provide food to the communities we serve — and we will do whatever it takes to make that happen.”
To sign up for the temporary service, go to http://www.baldorfood.com.
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