It’s a new year and although we are still in the grips of the COVID-19 pandemic, with two vaccines greenlighted by the FDA for distribution in the U.S. and hopefully more soon to come, there finally seems to be a light at the end of what has been a very long and dark tunnel. And to help ameliorate the administration of the vaccines to the public, Health and Human Services has partnered with approximately 60 percent of pharmacies in retail and grocery stores across the country. Among those retailers are Ahold Delhaize (Food Lion, Giant Food, The Giant Company, Hannaford Bros., Stop & Shop); Albertsons Cos. (Albertsons, Albertsons Market, Safeway, Osco, Jewel-Osco, Tom Thumb, Star Market, Shaw’s, Haggen, Acme Markets, Randalls, Carrs, Market Street, United, Vons, Pavilions, Amigos, Lucky’s, Pak n Save, Sav-On); Costco; The Kroger Co. (Kroger, Harris Teeter, Fred Meyer, Frys, Ralphs, King Soopers, Smiths, City Market, Dillons, Marianos, Pick-n-Save, Copps, Metro Market); Walmart (including Sam’s Club); Wegmans; and Weis Markets. News outlets all over the nation have been documenting when these retailer pharmacies started administering their first doses. However, two local grocers have made COVID-19 vaccination headlines for a slightly different reason. In the Phase 1A rollout of the vaccines in Washington, DC, only those who are frontline workers (workforce in acute care hospitals, specialty care hospitals, long-term care facilities, intermediate care facilities, emergency medical services, front-line public health, home health aides, outpatient settings and dental settings) and residents in skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities, and longer-term psychiatry inpatients are approved to be inoculated. However, Giant Food and Safeway Eastern were both recently highlighted in the news for giving out vaccines to people who are outside the set parameters.
A 31-year-old law student and a 36-year-old government contractor are among the few lucky enough to get a vaccine before most people in their age range and occupation, the former at Giant and the latter at Safeway. So, what makes these two so special that they were able to get inoculated way ahead of schedule? It turns out that they were just blessed with blind luck in those instances. Doses of the vaccines, once unfrozen, only last a few hours before they expire. If for some reason one of the scheduled members of the qualifying population is a no-show to receive their dose, and a vaccine provider can’t line up a front-line worker or someone in the at-high-risk age group to receive an unused dose at the last minute, District of Columbia guidelines call for the shot to be given to anyone who happens to be in the vicinity.
According to Daniel Wolk, communications and community relations manager at Giant Food, “The DC Department of Health has made it clear to Giant that if doses of the Moderna vaccine will expire, they should be administered to anyone willing to take it. The Moderna vaccine is viable for six hours after the first dose of the 10-dose vial is given. The Moderna vaccine is valuable and lifesaving, and we are happy to not waste it by giving doses to our associates and customers should a healthcare worker not show up for their appointment.”
Reiterating this information, Safeway released a statement saying,“We are working closely with the DC Department of Health to administer COVID-19 vaccines to high-risk individuals in Phase 1A of the vaccine rollout, and are making every effort to administer any leftover vaccine to priority patient populations to ensure the broadest vaccine distribution in accordance with Department of Health guidelines.”
So now the cat is out of the bag – if you’re willing to try your luck by hanging out at a participating pharmacy like some rock star groupie at the end of the day, you too could score a COVID-19 well before your peers.
According to a brief published by non-profit Feeding America in October, the coronavirus pandemic had caused millions of people to newly experience food insecurity (alongside those who were experiencing it before the crisis began) and at the time projected that the number of people who are food insecure in 2020 could rise to more than 50 million, including 17 million children. Therefore, now more than ever, it is important that retailers participate in healthy food incentive (HFI) projects, which can help close the nutrition gap among low-income populations by increasing purchasing power and access to fruits and vegetables. Since navigating these waters can be difficult, The National Grocers Association Foundation (NGAF), the nonprofit arm of the National Grocers Association (NGA) has debuted a new website for its Technical Assistance (TA) Center that addresses the technical and program operational challenges grocers face in establishing SNAP incentive (SI) and produce prescription (PPR) nutrition incentive programs.
Key components of the TA Center’s new website consist of resource pages for retailers, including capabilities of some POS systems; a solutions and methodologies page, including an outline of the ways in which nutrition incentives are currently being offered and/or implemented in grocery stores; and information on the benefits and drawbacks of the numerous solutions and methodologies currently being used. The site also features the latest news about nutrition incentives, blog posts by the TA Center team and industry experts, and other information including case studies and best practices.
“While providing those in need with free or discounted produce may appear simple, the technology to conduct efficient point-of-sale (POS) transactions, provide accurate reimbursement to retailers and maintain program accountability is complex,” said Ted Mason, TA Center project director. “This new website aims to simplify the process by offering a resource that can help answer questions that grocers may have about providing nutrition benefits to their customers who need them.”
Not only is this a great resource for retailers, but it is also free of charge and membership in the National Grocers Association is not required.
You can check out the new website at https://www.ngaftacenter.org/.
Until next month…
Karen can be contacted via email at [email protected].
