Meal delivery demand jumps
Demand for home meal deliveries in New Zealand is surging amid the coronavirus outbreak.
My Food Bag chief executive Kevin Bowler said the company had its biggest weekend in its seven-year history last weekend – up on the record set just the previous week – while Delivereasy has seen demand jump at least 50 per cent as Kiwis face big queues at supermarkets and are encouraged to stay home.
Speaking before Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s announcement yesterday that New Zealand was moving to level 3 alert and to level 4 in 48 hours, Bowler was optimistic home meal and meal kit deliveries would be seen as an essential industry.
‘‘One of the essential things to keep going is food production and food supplies.’’
Delivereasy director Nick Foster concurred. ‘‘We would like to think so – people need to eat.
‘‘It is also a pretty solid way for restaurants to at least keep some turnover . . . so we see that as being quite a viable option to at least help restaurants to keep a bit of staff on and a bit of cashflow.
‘‘We would like to think ... we are providing a service that is very safe – we have taken measures to make sure that as of today contactless delivery will be our only way of delivering food.
‘‘That means we leave the order at the customer’s door or at a specified location, instead of knocking on the door and giving the food out of the hand,’’ Foster said.
His company, which delivers restaurant meals to home customers, was experiencing heavy demand.
Bowler said My Food Bag staff were working hard to make sure supplies were able to meet the increased demand amid strict health measures. ‘‘We are doing temperature checks on staff before their shifts, and we have separated shifts, with an hour in between, in case of possible exposure.
‘‘We are taking all the sensible precautions – hand sanitisers, masks, gloves, hair nets.’’
Bowler said the company was in the process of dealing with how it copes with the extra demand.
Home kit meal supplier Hello Fresh is opening up new shifts and increasing delivery windows and routes.