During this time food industries have had to take precautions; either closing down completely or modifying their delivery services. Many fast-food restaurants have resorted to drive-thru as their only ordering service.

 This new arrangement in restaurants has affected students. Students’ jobs have been altered to fit the new circumstances. “ In-N-Out is very different, we have to wear gloves even if we’re not touching the food. We also have to use very strong hand sanitizer every time we come inside the store,” senior and In-N-Out worker, Blake Baird states.

Also, the pay is being changed to help support the faculty’s new daily schedule at work “We were given a $250 bonus for part-time workers and a $500 bonus for full-time workers… we are also given 50 sick hours so if we get sick we can still get paid for up to 50 hours,” Baird states.

During this quarantine people all over the city have gone through drive-thrus rather than cooking at home or eating inside the restaurants. Considering the increase in boredom and time, fast food industry sales have gone up. Burger King, Chick-fil-A, as well as Mcdonalds have had at least a 2 percent growth during this time.

Many people are worried that there will be a nationwide food shortage resulting in local fast-food restaurants shutting down completely. “There are no nationwide shortages of food, although in some cases the inventory of certain foods at your grocery store might be temporarily low before stores can restock,” the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) states.

For local businesses this time is rough, this worldwide pandemic has resulted in many food industries to completely close down. “Food facilities, like other work establishments, need to follow protocols set by local and state health departments, which may vary depending on the amount of community spread of COVID-19 in a particular area,” FDA stated in a March 2020 questionnaire. 

In the end, for either local small food startups or food chain restaurants, these COVID-19 regulations have taken a toll and have deeply affected how these industries work.