I have a very astute five-year old niece with a great memory. She lives in North Carolina and when I visited for Christmas she asked me to visit more often and I explained to her that I couldn't because it takes me five airplanes to get from my house to hers (she was only four at Christmas). She not only has not forgotten that fact, but has asked many questions related to it. If we're Facebook friends then you know that my parents were here not that long ago for the Iditarod Trail Race (a dog sled race from Anchorage to Nome). When my parents arrived home, my niece went with my sister to pick them up and asked them "did it take you five airplanes to get here from Aunt Kristin's?" The answer of course was yes.
Now at this point, you might be thinking, "that's pretty good, but I don't see how it relates to the post topic." Well hang on. Here's where my niece's thinking becomes amazing for a five year old. She heard that they were shutting down flights because of the coronavirus and so she asked my sister, "if it takes five airplanes for Aunt Kristin to get home and they are stopping the planes, how will her stores get food?" Now, I'll admit that that isn't an exact quote, but the idea is the same nonetheless, and was posed by a five year old. It's funny too because my other sister recently asked me essentially the same thing. So I figured I would try to answer this question for everyone.
First, everything in the bush is really expensive and nothing is truly fresh. It takes a long time for goods to get here. 90% of all goods sold in the state of Alaska come through the Port of Anchorage. I recently heard on the news that at least for one of the two main cargo shipping companies, their container ships all come out of Tacoma Washington. That means that for 90% of the goods coming into the state they have to first ship to Tacoma. Then after our goods ship to Anchorage, they then come to Galena by a variety of methods: 1) by air from Anchorage, 2) by land to Fairbanks and then by air to Galena or 3) by land to Nenana and then by barge to Galena. Option three is only available during the summer (approximately June through September depending on the ice on the river) and is how most hazmat items get here including (although probably not actually from Nenana) all of the fuel supply. One of my friends recently told me, "at least gas is cheap now." I replied, "Not here. Our gas is still $6.65 a gallon." This is because the gas here arrived last summer on the barge. We aren't affected by price swings only by the price in the summer (and of course due to the extra shipping our gas is always going to be a lot more expensive than other places). The barge is also how we get vehicles, building supplies, etc.
Since it is winter, my niece's concern is very valid. The City of Galena has prohibited all non-emergency passenger travel (essentially anything that isn't a medical emergency) into and out of the village. This means that we are only receiving cargo planes. Usually, passenger planes also carry mail and cargo, but at this time we are only receiving (to my knowledge) cargo flights. Thus, my dear neice can rest assured we are still getting airplanes with food.
That having been said, for many of us (myself included) we do not rely on the store too much for food. I use the store to pick up little things to finish out recipes and also to buy things that spoil rapidly like eggs (actually eggs have a pretty long shelf life), sour cream, cottage cheese, etc. Otherwise, whenever I go to Anchorage or Fairbanks I come back with 100 pounds of luggage that is usually food. I also mail nonperishable food and other supplies from Anchorage and when I shipped a car out here last summer I had it packed with everything from food to canning jars, paper towels and new pillows (I got stopped by an Alaska State Trooper within two miles of the barge terminal and he asked I was moving). I also have a lot of moose meat in my freezer. A lot of people here hunt and fish to have food for the year. I don't do either (I'm not here during fishing season), but last year was given some salmon by some friends (I at all of that last year) and this year was provided with some moose meat (I don't remember how much but I think it was about 35-40 pounds) in roast and ground form.
I would guess that I could eat from my current storehouses for 5-6 months if I have to. Now, I really wouldn't want to, at least not without buying more eggs because I like a lot of things that need eggs and also without more vegetables. I have a number of fresh vegetables my parents brought up that I am trying to finish off before they go bad. I also have long lasting things like onions, sweet potatoes, and potatoes as well as some frozen vegetables, but I don't have my usual access to fresh fruit a vegetables - school lunch. I usually eat school lunch which in addition to having often fantastic made from scratch meals, also includes a salad and fresh fruit bar everyday (assuming the cargo plane with the supplies comes in which doesn't always happen). By getting plenty of fresh fruit and veggies at lunch I don't worry as much when I run out of them at home in between my trips to town because I know I'm still getting something everyday. I make all my own bread, pizza dough etc. and in a worst case scenario situation have enough flour, yeast, peanut butter and homemade raspberry jam that I could survive a couple of months on just those items (although I sure hope I never have to do that). Many people here are the same. I know a lot of families that make trips to town in the summer to buy a year's worth of supplies and then drive it to the barge in Nenana.
Other people get supplies in different manners. We all use Amazon, although we don't get two-day prime delivery, ours usually takes 1-2 weeks. Sometimes as long as 4. (I had a Shutterfly order that took 7 weeks to arrive). Right now Amazon is showing that what few items I can buy (a lot of Amazon stuff won't ship here and as you all know at this time a lot of stuff isn't available on Amazon) will arrive at the beginning of May. Unfortunately, those estimates are usually a week to 10 days off so I suspect a lot of things won't arrive until mid-May (here's hoping I'm wrong on that). Some people order from Fred Meyer (a store that sells everything like a Walmart Supercenter, but is owned by Kroger) in Fairbanks and then pay Fred Meyer a fee to deliver it to an airline that will then fly it out here. After it is delivered to the airline they receive an email and then call the airline and pay the shipping for the item. Others do in fact rely on the store. We have two stores in town and the last time I went shopping with about a week ago for eggs and the price had gone up. That store usually has much cheaper eggs than the other and a few days prior I had bought 18 eggs for $4.93 after tax. Last week, the store only had eggs by the dozen and they were $5.04 after tax (the other store's eggs have regularly been $5.05 for a dozen after tax so I guess this doesn't count as price gouging). I hope for the people that don't have a storehouse of food, that the stores are able to stay stocked in food. So far, the Port of Anchorage says things are still flowing without issue there and so hopefully our supply chain will remain undisrupted because ours is a very precarious supply chain.
