There may be no light in the kitchen, but there’s likely food in the pantry.
The city’s food network roared back to life yesterday, with trucks rolling in and out of the Hunts Point Cooperative Market in The Bronx and other key distribution hubs.
“That’s why we have produce and people standing on line outside going into the store,” said John Catsimatidis, who owns the city’s 32 Gristedes supermarkets.
“We are doing it hour by hour, trying to get trucks from our warehouses,” he said. “Customers might notice a few things missing. What goes first? Bread and milk. We might be running a day behind.”
But residents of downtown neighborhoods without power, where 11 Gristedes are located, may have to trek uptown to re-stock their shelves.
For most shoppers, the main inconvenience may be the lack of their favorite brands, but there are plenty of substitutes.
For instance, Perdue Farms of Maryland warned local grocers that it would have trouble for the next few days because of Sandy, but other chicken suppliers are working to make up the shortfall.
Some brands that distribute directly to retailers from their factories or farms may also encounter delays.
City and state officials take food distribution very seriously.
“The literal movement of food into the city is the problem; that’s the thing that’s going to be the trick,” said Columbia professor Irwin Redlener, who heads the Ivy League university’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness.
Advances in supply-chain management mean that large cities like New York typically have only two to three days of food on hand at normal consumption levels. During the Cold War era, from the late 1940s to 1991, cities had as much as five days.
Representatives from major food suppliers have a seat in the command centers of the city’s and state’s Office of Emergency Management.
That way, food trucks can convoy with police escorts along roads and bridges closed to the public.
“We have priority consideration so we can restock shelves and people can feel a return to normalcy,” said James Rogers, president of the Food Industry Alliance of New York.
So far, neither the state or city has needed to give food trucks escorts to keep them rolling.
“We restocked three of our stores last night from The Bronx,” said George Zoitas, CEO of Westside Market.
“We are fully operational and fully stocked with everything. Milk, we got,” he said.
Other deliveries were getting back to normal.
The United States Postal Service has resumed limited services in parts of the city and suburbs.
FedEx said it’s delivering essential medical supplies, and expects to resume regular operations soon.