A Message from Mama Earth
At Mama Earth, we believe that we are all part of a connected food system here in Ontario. Our promise is to make it easier for you to make conscious choices in your family’s food needs -- helping you to eat amazing tasting, hyper-fresh organic food, while supporting small local farms and minimizing our overall footprint on the planet. While the COVID-19 pandemic has created new ways of being for consumers and businesses alike, we remain committed to our mission: helping you nurture the planet while you nourish your families.
Keeping Our Members & Our Team Safe
We’re continuing to ensure both you and our team members remain safe and healthy. We will continue to assess and implement new measures as needed, but here are the precautions we are already undertaking:
Contactless Delivery
As much as our customers loved to see their driver's smiling face, they’re now knocking and leaving the bin outside your door. If you have a screened in/covered porch or sunroom, the driver can leave the bin there for you. If you're in an apartment, drivers are not currently using the elevator. This means the delivery can only be left at your unit door if you’re on the main floor of the building, otherwise your bin will be left in the lobby or with the building concierge if one is available.
Health Screenings
We continue to limit entrance to our warehouse to only our staff, who themselves are temperature and health screened daily before entry.
Increased Sanitation Practices
We continue to sanitize all common areas throughout the day (ie. door handles, tables, phones, etc). We have very stringent policies with regard to food handling, and hand hygiene in particular. Our food packers and kitchen team always wear vinyl gloves, and frequent hand-washing/hand sanitization is standard procedure. We continue to reinforce these standards, and have increased the use of hand sanitizer throughout our operations.
Protective Equipment
All warehouse staff are wearing masks and gloves, on top of already changing, washing and sanitizing their hands with increased frequency. Drivers are avoiding high risk areas like elevators and stairwells and wear masks whenever they're unable to maintain social distancing.
Physical Distancing
All staff are committed to maintaining 2 meters of distance. We have added 2m visual cues throughout our warehouse to aid in the awareness and compliance of this physical distancing along with an accountability log for contact traceability should we need it.
Larger Warehouse
We’ve expanded our warehouse space to allow for further spreading of our employees, minimizing contact between teams and crossing of workflow lines.
Help Us by Sanitizing and Returning Bins
It’s easy to forget, but with this increase in deliveries and size of deliveries, we really appreciate you returning your bins! We also ask that you please help us ensure the bins are sanitized before placing outside for pickup (especially handles and lids). This will help protect our drivers until we can properly sanitize them once they get back to our warehouse. We greatly appreciate it!
Frequently Asked Questions
- Can the virus be transmitted on food?
According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, there is no evidence that food is a likely source or route of transmission for the virus. If the CFIA becomes aware of a potential food safety risk, appropriate actions will be taken to ensure the safety of Canada’s food supply. For additional information on inspection practices, please consult the CFIA’s COVID-19 website.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued precautionary recommendations including advice on the need to continue to follow good hygiene practices during food handling and preparation, such as washing hands, cooking meat thoroughly and avoiding potential cross-contamination between cooked and uncooked foods. More information can be found on the WHO website.
- How are you ensuring the safety of your staff?
The safety of our Mama Earthlings is our number one priority. We have restricted our warehouse access to staff only and implemented rigorous health and temperature screenings twice per day. We are also using protective equipment for every staff member and have expanded our warehouse space to allow for proper social distancing.
- How can I help?
Please help by sanitizing our bins prior to pick-up and recycle any glass bottles or cardboard including our frozen boxes (they’re 100% recyclable, including the liner!). We sanitize bins again once they are in our warehouse, but it is imperative we keep our drivers safe at all times.
- Are you hiring?
If you or someone you know is interested in joining our team, please check out our Good Jobs, Great People page for current open positions.
- What are your Sanitization Practices?
Warehouse: We are now sanitizing all common areas throughout the day (ie. door handles, tables, phones, etc). We already have in place very stringent policies with regard to food handling, and hand hygiene in particular. Our food packers and kitchen team always wear vinyl gloves, and frequent hand-washing/hand sanitization is standard procedure. We are reinforcing and re-training on these standards, and have increased the use of hand sanitizer throughout our operations.
Bins, Thermal Bags and Water Bottles: We use a commercial grade, food safe, kitchen sanitizer to clean all empty bins, thermal bags and water bottles that are picked up each day.
- How are drivers handling bins?
Our drivers are wearing masks where social distancing may not be possible, and avoiding high risk areas like elevators and stairwells. For those living in multi-story buildings, your bins will be left in common areas or with the concierge if one is available.
- Where and when will my delivery be left?
As much as our customers loved to see their driver's smiling face, they’re now knocking and leaving the bin outside your door. If you have a screened in/covered porch or sunroom, the driver can leave the bin there for you. If you're in an apartment, drivers are not currently using the elevator. This means the delivery can only be left at your unit door if you’re on the main floor of the building, otherwise your bin will be left in the lobby or with the building concierge if one is available.
- Should I return my frozen water bottles, empty jars, thermal bags and cardboard?
Frozen water bottles, thermal bags and glass jars can be returned in your empty bin for us to sanitize and reuse. We just ask that you take the water bottles out of the thermal bag and turn the bag inside out and give the jars a quick rinse. It can all be left in your empty bin for pick up. If you don’t mind also disinfecting the lid and handles of your empty bin, we’d really appreciate it! Cardboard packaging cannot be returned at this time, you can toss them into the recycling!