click image Is there anything grocers haven't done for us these past 15 months? Vermonters piled praise upon supermarkets, co-ops and general stores alike for their myriad pandemic pivots that kept us safe and well stocked. Curbside pickup at Montpelier's Hunger Mountain Co-op made "those of us older and higher-risk people feel so lucky and protected," said one shopper. "It took the anxiety away. I can't imagine what pandemic shopping without this service would have been like." Another agreed: "They deserve a parade and many medals of honor." "Without the Jericho Center Country Store, our lives would have been much more isolated and lonely," another shopper weighed in. "The cooks and clerks always asked, as did Jon St. Amour, the owner, what they might do for me, since I am 83 and live alone down the street from the store."