What we're doing for healthcare workers

Our team understands the responsibility we have to help frontline healthcare employees right now because of our ability to move quickly; the reach and scale of our existing supply chain; and the resources of our vendors, partners, and customers. And because nearly all other large cooked food providers (catering companies, restaurants) are closed or struggling too much financially to help. 

Hospital employees are putting themselves most at risk of dying and are currently working overtime, often going their entire shift without being able to stop for even one meal. After work, if they have the energy, they may go to a grocery store where they find limited options.

We also know that healthy food is one of the most effective ways to boost energy and mood.

Here's what we have planned as of right now to help hospital employees. 

1,500 N95 mask donations going to San Jose Regional and a second hospital TBD

• Stephen, our COO and co-founder, will be hand delivering these masks to San Jose Regional Hospital on Tuesday, March 24, 2020.

• N95 masks are important because they filter at least 95% of airborne particles. They are the PPE (personal protective equipment) most often used by hospitals for airborne infections. 

• There is a global shortage of these masks because most are manufactured in China today and China urgently needs these masks as well. Stephen was able to leverage our sourcing contacts in China to procure masks we could purchase and donate.

Methodology + customer meal donations to West Coast Hospitals

• Beginning this Sunday, March 2020, 2020 we will be donating meals to hospitals in partnership with our customers. 

• Customers will be able to add a donation meal to their orders starting with the April 6th menu being published today, March 24, 2020.

• Citizen philanthropists who are not Methodology members but would like to donate meals can do so here.

• Methodology will also donate an additional 25-50 boxes per delivery day, depending on our total order volume and max capacity. 

• Axlehire, our courier partner, has graciously offered to do deliveries for all of these donations completely free of charge.

• More to come on our hospital list, schedule, and donation numbers. 

• To accommodate servicing more people during this time of need, including our hospital donations, we have vastly simplified our menu starting the week of April 6th and will continue this trend in the coming weeks.

Frontline healthcare employees 30% discount for April

• We’re offering all frontline healthcare employees, including existing subscribers, 30% off their orders for the month of April. 

• Apply here: www.gomethodology.com/healthcare

COVID-19 Update from our Founders - March 20, 2020

To our valued customers,

On behalf of the entire Methodology team, we want to let you know how grateful we are for your continued support during this time. We’re aware that there are many businesses you could turn to for food delivery and appreciate that you’ve chosen to stand beside us.

Things change rapidly every day, but here’s what we’re currently doing to support our employees, customers, and the community.

Employees

• We’re doing everything possible to remain open and provide jobs and financial stability to our employees. 

• We’ve complied with all CDC and authority recommendations to ensure the health and safety of our employees, including but not limited to: 

  • increased janitorial staff and sanitation processes and frequency

  • increased hand sanitizers in break rooms, locker rooms, and entryways

  • revising upcoming menus to maximize the distance between employees at work

  • sending employees home who exhibit or report symptoms of illness 

  • ensuring all employees wear gloves and hairnets at all times during their shift 

  • ensuring frequent handwashing and sanitizing breaks throughout each shift

  • requiring all employees who can work remotely to work remotely

• We’ve temporarily halted cooler pickups for recycling as drivers did not feel safe completing this task.

• We’ve temporarily simplified our menu (fewer menu items and fewer ingredients per item) so that we can physically space employees further apart at work.

Customers

• We understand that reliably getting our food is more important now than ever before, so we’re doing everything possible to continue providing consistent service at the exceptionally high quality level you expect.

• We’ve put a waitlist in place and will not add new members when it risks us providing a less reliable and high-quality service to existing members. 

• Because of ingredient shortages, we’re finalizing our weekly menu at the last possible minute to ensure we can fulfill orders. Note that these last-minute ingredient changes mean that we may not have as many accurate photos of items during this time.

• We want to feed you emotionally, too. To help you feel supported, connected, and not alone, we’ve just launched Methodology Matchmaker, where we’ll pair you with another member we think you’d get along with. You can tell us whether you’re looking for friendship or romance. We’ll wingwoman you! Mmm, wings. To apply, visit https://www.gomethodology.com/matchmaker

Community

• We’re partnering with small businesses who are struggling right now by offering their products on our menu. You’ll begin to see these items in April. If you know of any small businesses who offer products our members would love, send them here: https://www.gomethodology.com/smallbusinesspartner

• N95 masks are desperately needed by hospitals in the US to minimize the spread of COVID-19 amongst hospital employees, so we leveraged our sourcing team in China to find N95 masks for us to purchase. We’ll be donating 1,000 N95 masks to San Jose Regional Hospital as doctors there have confirmed they need the masks and Santa Clara County as of 3/20/20 has the most confirmed COVID-19 cases of any county in Northern California according to the CDC. Masks will be donated within the next week as soon as the shipment arrives from China. 

Again, thank you for your support and the kind notes you’ve sent us via email and social media. Your messages are shared throughout our company. 

There are hidden blessings within every challenge. We’ve been touched by the changes we’ve seen all around us. Greater concern for the elderly, health-compromised, and frontline workers. Slowing down and paying closer attention to our bodies, health, and food. Taking time to check in on loved ones. Going out of our way to help complete strangers.

Not only will we get through this together, we’ll come out of this stronger, wiser, and more deeply connected to ourselves, each other, and the planet.

Sincerely,

Julie, Stephen, and the Methodology team

Temporary Cooler Pickup Suspension

Effective immediately, our courier service’s drivers will no longer pick up cooler boxes for return until further notice to help make sure our drivers and customers feel as safe as possible during this time. This includes our monthly box pickups scheduled outside of our regular delivery schedule. Minimizing health risks to our drivers also ensures we have enough drivers on staff to continue doing deliveries.

We know how much our members appreciate and rely on this service and will reinstate cooler pickups as soon as we feel it’s safe to do so.

For now, we ask that our members dispose of packaging themselves. Here’s how to do that:

Recycle or reuse

• Glass jars

• Plastic meal containers

Recycle

• Plastic surrounding cooler liners

• Butcher paper padding jars

Compost or dispose of down sink

• Cooler liners within plastic wrapping

Throw away or reuse

• Ice Packs

We apologize for this temporary inconvenience and thank you for your understanding during this time.

Please reply or email help@gomethodology.com if you have any questions or concerns.

Julie + the Methodology Team

COVID-19 Update - Shelter In Place Mandate

This morning it was announced that most of the San Francisco Bay Area will be under a shelter in place mandate for the next three weeks. As a company that operates in Contra Costa County and delivers to several customers in affected counties, we wanted to give an update on how this will impact our service. 

As a food delivery service, we’re considered an essential business and therefore we will remain open to continue making and delivering food to our customers. This includes delivering to customers in the counties affected by the mandate: San Francisco, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Marin, Contra Costa, and Alameda. 

Shipping and courier services are also considered essential businesses under the shelter mandate. And we’ve confirmed with our courier service as well as with FedEx that deliveries can continue running as usual everywhere we currently deliver (California, Seattle, Portland). 

For the foreseeable future, we don’t expect any of this to change. 

We are continuing to monitor the situation and will adapt as necessary to ensure our customers are able to receive food through this unprecedented time. 

Thank you for putting your trust in us. We know how important food is on any given day, let alone at a time like this. 

If you have any questions, please email help@gomethodology.com and we’ll get back to you as soon as we’re able.

Julie + the Methodology Team

Food Safety and COVID-19 Prevention at Methodology

We know there have been concerns about COVID-19, including how it might affect the safety of the food that’s being delivered to our customers’ houses. We want to assure you that we take this issue just as seriously as you do and that the protection of our subscribers’ wellness is our utmost concern.

Fortunately, according to the Centers for Disease Control, there is no evidence to support transmission of COVID-19 through food. All the same, we carefully follow safety measures throughout our supply chain, beginning with ethical sourcing, to the time raw materials are received in our facility, through the food preparation process, to the time that our food is delivered to your homes. 

We use what is known in the industry as Good Manufacturing Practices, which ensure the safety and cleanliness of our employee practices, equipment, and conditions of external environments of food preparation/packaging. Our employees wear multiple layers of protective equipment to protect our food from contamination during the preparation and packaging steps. As additional precautionary measures, we have re-emphasized our existing policies to encourage our employees and drivers of the following:

• Evaluate their own health, and to stay/go home if they are feeling unwell.

• Wear hairnets, gloves, and appropriate protective attire during all stages of food receiving, preparation, and packaging processes.

• Frequently wash hands with soap and water in hot water for at least 20 seconds. Sanitize hands frequently using our many hand sanitizing stations.

• Avoid touching eyes, nose, mouth, hair, or clothing.  Always wash hands after touching any of these areas, coughing or sneezing.

• Avoid close contact with people who are sick.

And because the CDC has told us that COVID-19 has poor survivability on food products or packaging that are shipped at ambient or refrigerated temperatures, we feel especially confident that our food is safe to eat because our food is meticulously cooked, cooled, stored, and packaged with love onsite by our trusted Methodology Family of employees.

We’ll track CDC updates and will continuously re-evaluate our current policies and procedures as things develop. If you have any further questions or concerns about our policies, please feel free to reach out to us at help@gomethodology.com.