Ya'll are not ready for what fell into my lap as I was doing some gig app research. Sit down. Get your popcorn and get ready to think about what your Fresh food shipments are really going through before they reach your door and table.
My food safety questions started long before I ever stepped into the warehouse. They started because I understand food handling. I've spent 20+ years in many areas of food service. From kitchen prep. To receiving and storing. This is something I'm constantly questioning when I'm in establishments.
For those new here, I'm located in Philadelphia, PA. Since 2021 I've been using Grubhub and some of the other food apps to do gig work when need be. March 16, 2026 I woke up to a service interruption. Brought everything to an unplanned and abrupt halt for a moment. As things were cleared up that caused the interruption, I still needed to wait before returning to Grubhub for a competely different and unrelated reason. My account was active, but I was advised by my legal counsel to find something else until we got this last thing extinguished. So I did. I had so many other gig platforms I had signed up for, and a few I had used a few times. But because Grubhub was so consistent I never explored them.
I dove fully into seeing just what I might find. Gig apps are the shit because you can literally build a full time income and never work the same place and possibly clear a week's pay in less than 4 days. And the best part, you can cash out whenever you like (within reason because some gigs are listed as W-2 work. But that's another blog).
The first few gigs I found on Instawork were stupid easy. The thoughts were always, "Ya'll really paying people to do this dumb thing?!" Okay sign me up. But I couldn't help but notice I kept seeing Jitsu Warehouse pop up. And it wasn't far from where I live. And then I noticed they had driver gigs from time to time. So I kept trying to snag either. I love a job that pays me to workout. And I was equally game to try a driving route for them atleast once. If nothing more than to see what it was all about. I mean, I was getting paid either way. So, for 2 weeks I made sure notifications were on so I could hopefully catch one. They always seemed to go fast. And since I was new to the platform, others with higher standings would usually snag those jobs before I ever had a chance to honestly see it.
What is Jitsu?
A last-mile package delivery service.
They are tech tech-enabled and specialize in fast, local shipping ranging from same-day, next-day, and two-day delivery for e-commerce, retail, and subscription brands. They mainly deal with subscription & perishable goods such as Factor, Hello Fresh, and Blue Apron. As well as general retail items (like American Eagle and Nespresso).
Jitsu also offers Uber Style gig model. This is where the driver shifts would come into play.
They operate using an asset-light model that combines dedicated delivery vans (this is important) with a large pool of independent gig workers. Drivers pick up sorted packages from centralized hubs and deliver them along specific local routes.
Think of Jitsu like this, instead of competing at the massive, cross-country freighting. Jitsu said let's focus on dense urban areas across the U.S and expedite delivery at ground-shipping rates.
Chain of Custody
Your meal doesn't magically appear at your door. It's packaged (however that process happens). Put on a refrigerated truck and taken to the warehouse/facility responsible for getting it to your door. This is the process I was apart of.
When it's unloaded from refirgerated trucks, workers sort it by hand. It sits waiting on routes. Then it's loaded into independent contractors' vehicles. Then those contractors spend hours completing deliveries.
About 3 weeks into using Instawork I finally landed an overnight gig in the warehouse. It was crazy the timing because I'm telling you. The Most High did not want me using GrubHub until that thing was extinguished. Because I literally turned GrubHub on and then bam the notification came through an hour and a half from now, Jitsu Warehouse gig. Paying the same amount that I was getting ready to run to multiple places doing pick up and deliveries with GrubHub to achieve. So I grabbed it. I ran home to change.
screenshot from Instawork Platform 2026 These Are The Times Eluminate
I was already dressed quite comfortably, but I wanted to change my shoes. I knew I'd be on my feet for six straight hours. And they'd already asked me if I could lift up to 75 lb which I can, but again I want the right shoes. I'm going to a warehouse were the floor has no give.
I sprint home. Change my shoes and throw my braids up in a bun. I had already been reading the reviews from other people who had done shifts there. One woman said they deal mainly with the fresh food orders like Hello Fresh so it's usually a bit chilly in the warehouse. The dress code was pretty chill as long as you had on closed toe shoes. You could wear shorts, jeans, sweatpants, t-shirts, tank top, hoodies... whatever made you feel comfortable. The job description was straight forward and was what I experienced...to a degree.
Screenshot from Instawork Platform 2026 These Are The Times Eluminate
My 1st shift there was June 8, 2026.
The Fit
So I had on yoga pants that have the phone pocket on the hip. A tank top. A cute little sporty jacket that has the thumb holes. It's not really heavy simply something to have my arms covered because I knew I would be dealing with boxes and carrying things. I put on my pink tennis shoes because they are the most comfortable shoes to walk, run, and stand in. And oddly enough come clean with ease. They were an all around win for this situation.
My First Impression
The facility full square footage is 426, 335 sq ft. we occupied the rear protion of the warehouse area. About 90,000 sq ft. It had a loading dock for trucks. The enterance had a make shift, on floor, office area where we signed in. And where scanner checkout/checkin happened. A few feet after that started the smalls stations where the smaller items were sorted for driver routes. This would be your trinket size packages. And items that ship to you in bags. A few feet after that started the pallets which were placed in quardants from A-Z and by Numbers. The roller conveyors split the quardants.
My first night there they threw that shift out because they got in and needed more people than originally planned. When I arrived for my 10p.m.-2a.m. shift, they had already been there two hours working away. Every thing I touched that night had come directly off trucks.
Here's what I personally observed. Every box (on however many trucks that landed that evening) was moved with man power. The pallets were pulled from the refrigated trucks with a forklift. Broken down by hand. Scanned. Labeled with it's quarderant and pallet letter. As they rolled down the converyor (powered by human push) you grabbed your sections and started making your pallets. Scanning each one in on your end and linking it to its correct route pallet. We are the last stop before your Hello Fresh, Factor, all them fresh food company's, reach you. This is where your order gets put with the other orders that are along your drivers route.
The warehouse wasn't refrigerated. It's the dead of summer and we are in there uncomfortably hot after a few rounds. Not in a way that we gonna die. But certainly sweating and some even wearing tanks and shorts. The boxes coming directly off the truck felt colder than boxes that had already been sitting inside the warehouse. That immediately me me start wondering about temperature management throughout the process. You know in a way that had me like, "Ummm isn't this fresh food?!"
When I got home around 3a.m. from that shift, I peeled my socks off and there was a dirt ring around both ankles. I scrubbed my ankles foor what felt like twenty minutes each. My shoes? Covered. My socks? Filthy. Even the warehouse manager joked thirty minutes into my first shift, "I'm sorry I ruined your pink sneakers." I laughed! "They're shoes. I wore them on purpose." Plus I've got doTERRA cleaner. I ain't scared.
Later that day I get hit with a "You've been requested" from that warehouse. They wanted me for four more shifts. And I took them all. Simply because these shifts would be full eights. And I would get to honestly see night shift from start to finish. Maybe my first night was a an odd evening.
Question Upon Questions
Leading up to that second shift, I couldn't stop thinking about quailty control. As someone with an extensive background in food managment and handeling, none of what I had witnessed so far was sitting right with me.
Then it hit me... The delivery drivers aren't pulling up in refrigerated vans. Many are contract drivers through gig apps like Instawork, People Ready and the likes. The only requirements I saw were that the vehicle must be clean and completely empty from front to back. Inclulding trunk area. So it could be loaded with packages. No passengers allowed to be in with you during routes.
Compact cars
Sedans
SUVs
Your route, based on their logastics, should take the allotted time they contracted you and your pay is a flat fee. So if your behind or it takes you longer... it just takes you longer. Your pay doesn't increase because traffic does. But nowhere in there is refrigation mention...
That hit hard for me because a few days later I passed one of those drivers around 7:00 p.m. still finishing deliveries. I don't know what time he started. I don't know what route he had. But I couldn't help wondering how long those boxes had been riding around inside his personal vehicle.
Context matters. This wasn't October. Philadelphia was hot! And at this point gearing up for the heatwave. Which we've come through. Even though the day I'm writing this is cooler because of several nights of storms, we're still in early July.
When I arrived for my second shift at the same location. We are all greeted with competely empty quarderant pallets. And rows deep of boxes already sitting. That were unloaded from trucks (don't know when) but already waiting to be sorted. 
There were two trucks waiting in the front part of the lot to come unloaded full loads.
As we are checking in we are being reminded -
it's cool if you need to step off the floor and grab a quick bite or a drink. But please keep food off the work area floors because rodents are still a big issue.
That caught my attention. I wasn't shocked that any warehouse could deal with rodents—large warehouses fight pests all the time. Large warehouses in the city. I get it. What caught my attention was hearing it openly and casually discussed during orientation while handling food shipments.
Meanwhile, industrial size fans were going near the check-in area. You could feel some breeze moving about. But this day was one of the hot hot days. We all had been some where else and had been in the heat. And I certainly didn't experience a controlled temperature warehouse during my shifts there.
And ironically those who had been there for a while all came dressed to not sweat or be any hotter than necessary.
According to publicly available information, Jitsu states its warehouses are temperature regulated because they handle perishable items. That statement did not match what I personally experienced during the four shifts I worked there.
The refrigerated trucks themselves were cold. Boxes that had just come off those trucks were noticeably cold to the touch. However, boxes that had already been sitting inside the warehouse no longer felt cold to me by the time I handled them. By the end of my shift around 2:00 a.m., during final pallet counts and correcting scanning errors, I wasn't handling boxes that felt cold anymore.
Let's Talk Time...
7:00 p.m.
Refrigerated trailers arrive.
Product is unloaded.
7:00 p.m.–2:00 a.m.
Workers sort.
Scan.
Label.
Build pallets.
2:00/3:00 a.m.
Night shift leaves.
6:00–8:00 a.m. (approximately)
Day operations prepare routes.
Drivers begin loading.
The second shift is when my stomach sank. During my first shift everything I touched had just come off refrigerated trailers. This time, rows of boxes were already sitting inside the warehouse waiting. That's when I realized my first night might not have been typical. And found every shift to be much of the same.
That timeline left me wondering how temperature was being maintained after products left the refrigerated trailer and before they reached customers.
The meals I handled were packed similarly to other meal-kit deliveries—corrugated cardboard shipping boxes. I wasn't opening customers' packages, so I can't speak to what insulation or ice packs were inside each box. I can only describe what the outside of the boxes felt like as I handled them.
Final Thoughts
Maybe these companies have procedures behind the scenes that customers never see. Maybe there are safeguards I wasn't aware of. But after working inside that warehouse, watching routes get packed into personal vehicles, and seeing how deliveries are handled, I walked away with more questions than answers.
I've learned something over the years... Most people don't pay attention until something affects them personally. I tend to ask questions before that happens.
Call it curiosity. Call it experience. Call it being a pain in the ass. Whatever you call it... It's kept me asking better questions than most people ever think to ask.
Maybe nothing's wrong. Maybe everything is exactly as it should be.
Or maybe the questions we stop asking are the very reason standards start slipping.
I can only tell you what I personally saw, what I personally handled, and what I personally experienced.
The rest...
Well...
That's for y'all to chew on.
Erica Parrótt | These Are The Times Eluminate