Canned Comfort

Not just for preppers anymore

Of all the foods pandemic-stricken citizens simply couldn't live without, beans were the couldn't-live-without-est. Black, pinto, butter, garbanzo: whatever the bean, there wasn’t a single can left at any supermarket, anywhere, two minutes into lockdown. (Except for one lonely can of trout beans with suspicious dents and puckers.) Cylindrical towers of inexpensive protein, panic-shopped and stashed in kitchens, helped people feel competent and in control (and made good hand weights for home workouts). Beans filled families with (um) hope.