At Strack & Van Til, we want to reassure you that though the current health situation is constantly changing, we’re monitoring it closely and taking extra precautions to continue to protect the communities we serve in Northwest Indiana.

Our customers’ health, well-being and safety, as well as that of our associates and vendors, is of the utmost importance. Therefore, in these unprecedented times, we are taking nothing for granted. While those in our area are staying home, eating is a necessity. Food and the access to it must be safe. As an essential provider, we want you to know that we’re open, we’re here for you and we’re operating according to our state and local health authorities’ guidelines.

Increased internal communications, education and training

• We have daily contact with Store Directors, merchants and other key departments and are using print and text communications to inform our associates of the latest recommendations including social distancing, handwashing, cough and sneeze etiquette.
• Educating associates with posters and video trainings from the CDC, providing memos about “shelter in home” orders and what they mean, and teaching them how the virus spreads and how to take steps to protect others by staying home if they’re sick.

Rigorous cleaning and sanitizing processes

• More frequent cleaning to high touch areas like doors/handles, keypads, registers, restrooms, phones, offices and breakrooms.
• Associates are cleaning shopping cart handles and placing carts in areas labeled “sanitized carts” for customer use.
• We’ve hired an outside cleaning company to pressure wash/sanitize shopping carts weekly (weather permitting).

Enhanced social distancing methods

• We will be asking our customers to limit the number of shoppers that accompany them per trip.
• We are implementing a process to monitor/limit the number of customers in our stores.
• We’ve placed social distancing floor dots, installed plexiglass/sneeze guards at registers and service centers, and when possible, opened every other register to help maintain social distance and physical separation.
• Overhead announcements broadcast the importance of social distancing.

Special shopping hours to help protect those most vulnerable

• Senior Hours from 6am to 7am Monday through Friday
• First Responder Hour on Sundays from 6am to 7am.

Working to protect the public and our associates

• Conducting daily health screenings/temperature checks of each associate as they arrive to work.
• Providing associates with gloves, masks and sanitizer and those associates that have high touch interactions with customers such as cashiers, we are mandated that they wear masks. Additionally, we have ordered polycarbonate face shields that will arrive shortly.

• Any associate with a fever will be sent home for the day and may not return to work until their temperature is normal for 72 hours.

Other preventative measures

• We suspended the use of outside reusable or recycled bags and suspended returns/refunds.
• We have temporarily closed self-service departments and all drinking fountains and have suspended samples.
• We have temporarily reduced our weekly sales ad to decrease customer count in our stores.

At Strack & Van Til, our goal is to make people’s lives easier by feeding them. We extend our special appreciation to the heroes on the front line of this pandemic: grocery store staff, healthcare workers, first responders, medical suppliers, truck drivers, pharmacy employees and all others who risk their lives for others.

We’re all in this together. May we all meet today’s challenges for a better tomorrow.

Thank you for your patience, cooperation and understanding.

Jeff Strack
President and CEO
Strack & Van Til Food Markets