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At the sprawling Kraft Heinz Co. plant in Montreal, the Kraft Dinner production lines are running every minute, every day, pumping out box after box of what has become one of the biggest panic buys of the COVID-19 crisis.

Sales of the Canadian pantry staple last week spiked 35 per cent compared to the previous four weeks, and grocers have struggled to keep it on shelves.

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“Kraft Dinner is such a critical line,” said Danielle Nguyen, the plant manager. So critical that Kraft Heinz has a series of backup plans to keep pumping out KD should employees fall ill or need to isolate.

It’s a feeling that’s very hard to describe. It feels like you’re serving your country Danielle Nguyen, Kraft Heinz plant manager

“We have Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, Plan D,” she said.

Plan A is to keep the two KD production lines running at full steam, in three shifts, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, making macaroni, drying it, filling the sachets of powdered cheese and packaging it all up, at a speed of roughly 400 boxes per minute.

As a Plan B, the plant is training a team of replacements, who usually work on less-essential product lines such as Philadelphia Cream Cheese, to take over if need be. If those back-ups can’t make it in, the plant will ask the mechanics to run the KD lines. And if the mechanics can’t make it in, managers and supervisors will step in.