Perishable foods at risk as Stop & Shop strike persists
As Stop & Shop strikers hunkered down on a windy, wet Monday afternoon in front of a Norwalk supermarket, live lobsters moved lazily in their tank at the seafood counter, with product carts positioned to block would-be buyers.
Plenty more meat and other fresh foods abounded, however — all of it carrying expressed or implied expiration dates, and with no clear indication on the fifth day of the strike whether some or all of it would go to waste.
Stop & Shop resumed negotiations Monday with five local union affiliates of the United Food & Commercial Workers, including UFCW Local 371, which has its head office in Westport. The strike extends to stores throughout Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, with markets operating on skeleton staffs comprised of managers brought in from other locations and temporary workers.
Union workers said they have noticed many customers opting to shop elsewhere rather than cross picket lines. And with the Easter weekend beckoning, cashiers at competing markets said business is booming as Stop & Shop customers stock up for the occasion.
That leaves hams piled high in open, refrigerated cases at Stop & Shop stores throughout the region. There’s also an open question — what will happen to that food and other perishable items if the impasse continues and shoppers stay away?
A spokeswoman with Quincy, Mass.-based Stop & Shop said the company has been trying to keep up with its normal schedule of donations of excess food to local nonprofit pantries, including Monday in Trumbull, Branford and Mystic, among other locations.
“We are working with all of our regional food bank partners right now as well as local pantries to donate as much food as possible to our neighbors in need,” Stop & Shop spokeswoman Jennifer Brogan wrote in an email Monday to Hearst Connecticut Media. “We are also working with our longtime partner Foodshare to facilitate donations from all our stores in Hartford and Tolland counties.”
It’s particularly a problem since the strike has occurred prior to the Easter holiday weekend when pantries see more activity, according to Kathleen Lombardo, executive director of the Food Bank of Lower Fairfield County. Lombardo said her drivers have been turned away from their normal visits to Stop & Shop stores to pick up unsold food and truck it to the nonprofit’s Stamford warehouse.
Stop & Shop accounts for more than half of the some 1.2 million pounds of provisions redistributed annually by the Food Bank of Lower Fairfield County, freezing food as it approaches expiration dates for storage until the food pantry can use it.
Lombardo said Stop & Shop benefits from the arrangement as well, in tax deductions it can record on what would otherwise amount to total losses on any unsold food.
A spokesman for the East Haven-based Connecticut Food Bank said it too is making efforts to ensure food does not go to waste.
“We will work with stores individually to arrange salvage and work with representatives of the unions representing workers so that safety and respect for the process are maintained,” spokesman Paul Shipman, wrote in an email. “Donated food is a vital means of helping us fulfill our mission to provide nutritious food to people in need.”