To provide the community with a safe way to purchase food during the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, Jaindl Farms has recently begun offering over-the-phone ordering and curbside pickup services at the Jaindl Farms Retail Store, 3151 Coffeetown Road, Orefield.

Retail store Manager Joanna Jaindl-Keichel spoke to The Press March 21 about how the new ordering system works.

Customers should call the retail store main office at 610-395-3333 to place an order, designate a pickup time and receive their order number.

All payments are completed over the phone to cut down on person-to-person contact.

After arriving at the store, Jaindl-Keichel said customers should call the store number again and store employees will bring the orders out to waiting vehicles.

Pickups are available 9 a.m. to noon, Monday to Saturday.

Additionally, Jaindl-Keichel said customers who have not placed an order ahead of time can still come to the store, call in and place an order from the parking lot during the pickup window hours.

“We won’t turn anyone away,” she said.

Jaindl-Keichel said the pickup system was planned early in the week of March 16 to improve staff and customer safety and limit the spread of COVID-19.

She said while the retail store originally remained open on Fridays and Saturdays for customers to shop, increasing concerns about the coronavirus led the store to temporarily stop walk-ins and set up the phone ordering system.

Since the order and pickup system began March 18, she estimated that approximately 40 orders have been fulfilled.

“It’s been fairly constant, but hopefully more people will be notified we’re doing this, and we’ll be able to provide as much product as we can,” Jaindl-Keichel said.

Speaking of the different products available to customers, Jaindl-Keichel noted that one of the big sellers is the farm’s newest product – ground turkey - which arrived shortly before the curbside ordering service began.

In addition to ground turkey, other available products include turkey nuggets, smoked turkey, pulled turkey barbecue, bone-in breasts, jerky and A-Treat soda.

“A lot of people are getting whole turkeys, too,” Jaindl-Keichel said. “So many people don’t have meat available to them in grocery stores.”

She said many customers place large orders for stocking freezers and said since many of the turkey products are already frozen, the stocking and organizing process is much easier for staff and customers.

Jaindl-Keichel said the store was is considering adding an online ordering option in the near future, depending on the feedback and order volume from the phone service.

She also said the retail store may consider keeping the curbside pickup around once the pandemic passes.

“If it works out well and our customers like it, we’ll definitely consider it,” she said.

Regarding recent orders from Gov. Tom Wolf to close nonessential businesses, Jaindl-Keichel said Jaindl Farms remains operational as a life-essential agricultural operation and extra precautions have been taken to protect employees from the coronavirus.

She said shifts have been kept separate as much as possible to limit exposure between people, and that schedules have been staggered to prevent employees from working full-day shifts.

Additionally, extra hand sanitizer has been obtained and distributed among workers.

Jaindl-Keichel said the retail store will continue providing curbside pickup services for the entire duration of the pandemic to ensure customers can safely receive food, and she thanked the community for their support.

“We’ll be doing this as long as it’s going on, we’re not going to stop,” she said.

“We want to say thank you to the community for their support through this trying time. We’re here to help everybody; anything we can provide we’ll be here for them.

“We’ll get through this together.”