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Keeping food fresh challenges markets

Region's grocery and convenience stores toss spoiled food and restock fresh items after Hurricane Isabel knocks out power.

By JESSICA ALLEN

Date published: 9/23/2003

Grocery stores have become Ginette Sacra's second home.

The 33-year-old Spotsylvania County resident said she has spent the past few days at four different ones searching for water, milk and other food items.

"I'm happy today, because I found milk," she said yesterday while shopping at Ukrop's in Spotsylvania with her three children and a niece.

Sacra wasn't the only one having a hard time finding food items.

The loss of electricity last week forced many stores to throw away dairy products and meats.

Shoppers Food Warehouse in Central Park had no power for 22 hours, and food items that weren't stored in a generator-run freezer were left to spoil, said Glen Morefield, assistant store manager.

"We lost thousands of dollars worth of food," he said.

But customers don't have to worry about spoiled items, he said. Trucks with milk and frozen foods have been visiting the grocery store since Saturday, he said.

"We only put out what's good," he said. "I know, because I buy it myself."

The Giant Food store at Park & Shop off the U.S. 1 Bypass stored most of its perishable food items in a refrigerated trailer that was parked at its rear dock, said store manager John Smith.

But Tricia Belman of Stafford County, who had her power restored Saturday night, said the shelves looked pretty bare.

"They had no whole milk, which I need for my 18-month-old son, and I wanted to have seafood for dinner, but they didn't have any."

Ukrop's Super Market off State Route 3 also lost dairy and deli items, but not as many as other stores because those products were put in freezers running on generators, said Jim Blackwell, store manager.

"I feel very fortunate, because amazingly, we didn't lose that much," he said.

The Wawa food markets on Plank Road and in Dahlgren are still working on generators, area supervisor Michelle Sullivan said.

Tractor-trailers full of ice and food products from its Pennsylvania warehouse are being sent to the stores for customers, she said.

"We threw away a lot of products, but we worked hard transferring food items from one store to the other before losing electricity," Sullivan said.

Some stores lost about 5,000 food items, she said.

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Date published: 9/23/2003