Food has always been a central part of American celebrations of Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Christmas. Whether your family likes to gather around the table to share a roast turkey, a succulent ham, a slow-cooked brisket, or some delicate whitefish, finding the perfect cut for the holidays is the first step toward creating a memorable feast.
This year, with travel plans disrupted due to COVID-19 and many families choosing to follow CDC recommendations by opting for a distanced celebration, Americans are looking for ways to re-create the magic of the big family meal.
Young people who may never have prepared their family’s time-honored holiday dishes are asking for recipes, grandparents are giving impromptu Zoom cooking tutorials, and everyone is trying to figure out how to source their favorite cuts of meat at a time when shopping is risky and finding high-quality cuts isn’t as easy as popping down to the local butcher.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, many Americans are looking into options that will help them find the foods they love from local producers who can deliver purchases straight to their doors.
But convenience isn’t the only reasons to choose meat delivery this year. From finding quality meat in manageable portions to helping support local agriculture, here are four reasons why meat delivery is one of the most popular shopping choices of the 2024 holiday season.
1. Delivery Reduces the Strain on Retail Infrastructure
Over the past few months, it has become clear that navigating the pandemic in a way that is safe for yourself and others means avoiding crowded areas as much as possible.
While many supermarkets have taken measures the limit the number of people allowed to shop at one time, the surest way to keep supermarket workers safe is to avoid these spaces altogether. With the holidays approaching, supermarkets are expecting heavier-than-usual traffic, which will place a strain on systems that are already struggling to control the spread of the coronavirus.
By ordering from a delivery service, you can do your part to reduce traffic and avoid unnecessarily exposing yourself or your loved ones to the virus. And because a lot of delivery services will bring your order straight to your door, you also save time travelling to and from the grocery store or butcher, allowing you to spend more of your time and money perfecting your holiday feast.
2. Delivery Helps You Access Premium Meat
Mastering the holiday recipes you remember from your childhood starts with using the kinds of wholesome ingredients that your grandparents would know to look for. And while this applies to everything from veggies and herbs to eggs and butter, it is especially true when shopping for meat.
Unfortunately, a lot of the meat sold by mainstream supermarkets and delivery operations simply isn’t of sufficient quality to deliver the complex flavors and textures that we love so much in a holiday roast. Most meat sold in the United States comes from industrial operations that treat farming like a production line, producing an inferior product and damaging the environment in the process.
With delivery, it’s a lot easier to shop for premium products from artisanal producers who take pride in offering the best American-raised meat. Whether you’re looking for a grass-fed beef roast or free-range chicken, your odds of finding what you’re looking for are a lot better when you buy from a specialized service that helps you get meat from farmers who are serious about quality meat.
3. Delivery Connects You to Local Producers
Of all the industries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, small farms are among the hardest hit. Even at the best of times, small farms operate on tight margins and lack the resources that large conglomerates have to market their products and ride out bad harvests or lower-than-expected prices.
This is especially true of farms that specialize in beef, pork, or poultry production. Keeping large numbers of animals alive and healthy costs money, and when prices dip due to decreased demand, the results can be devastating. Now more than ever, it is important for consumers to tangibly support the farmers and producers in their communities and regions by seeking out their products.
Fortunately, services like trulocalusa.com make a point of sourcing their products from local operations committed to high quality and responsible environmental practices, so when you order your holiday chicken through truLOCAL, you are helping to keep small farms in your region in business.
4. Delivery Lets You Buy the Portions You Need
If you’re only making dinner for yourself or your immediate family, you probably don’t need to buy a 20-pound turkey. Unfortunately, it isn’t always easy to find local butchers willing to deliver small portions to your home, especially during the holiday season when whole turkeys and hams are in high demand.
Specialized meat delivery services tend to provide you with a much broader range of choice when it comes to the products you want to purchase, so if all you really need are some breasts and legs, you don’t need to pay for a whole bird if you don’t want to — though of course you will have the option to order whole hams and chickens if you want to.
Because most meat delivery services are designed to provide a regular supply of pre-packaged local meats for busy people who don’t have time to process a chicken or chuck roast when they finish work for the day, a delivery service is the best option if you want manageable portions that don’t require a huge amount of preparation.
As Americans from coast to coast prepare for a holiday season unlike any other in living memory, many are finding that ingenuity and creativity are the key to creating a meaningful holiday experience during this period of social distancing.
Re-creating your favorite holiday recipes is an essential way of staying connected, and if you want to make sure you get the high-quality ingredients that will give your meals some added authenticity, exploring your options for local online meat delivery is a great way to start.
Kim Marks 
Lana