Robert Golike said he feels like the world's most expensive food delivery driver because he uses a plane.
On a recent morning, Mr. Golike, a pilot for Alaska Air Transit, was loading up a plane with mail, produce and diapers at Merrill Field. He was going to fly those essentials to the Upper Kuskokwim region.
The most anticipated cargo was two DoorDash orders. Pedro's Mexican Grill in Anchorage has steak taco and churros, and the same place has an array of Chinese takeout classics, including lo mein, beef broccoli and General Tso's chicken.
The delivery on the other end was waiting for Natalia and her family, who look forward to their city food.
You can order anything you want.
Before they could dig in, the pilot had to ferry the order on the long air journey over the silty waters of Cook Inlet, the craggy snow-covered peaks of the Alaska Range and the lake-pocked terrain near the airstrip in Nikolai where he would land.
There was a box of food that was passed on to a health aide. There are no grocery stores or restaurants in that community of less than 100 people, so her family orders from DoorDash to break the monotony of chicken- and moose-based soups and stew.
After microwaving their order, which had been delivered to the airport the previous afternoon, Ms. Navarro and her family dug in.
She said it wasn't quite the same as eating city food in a city, but it was nice to have the option to have something like that sent out. It is not hot. It is not fresh. It has the flavor you are looking for.
Delivery drivers, airline office employees and pilots help bring a taste of the city to the bush and tundra. Alaska Air Transit is one of dozens of small regional airlines flying people and cargo to hundreds of remote communities across Alaska, but also pizzas, Big Macs and tightly wrapped containers of pho.
Five years ago, when she lived in Fort Yukon, it was a thrill to get pizza from Fairbanks 140 miles away. There wasn't a place to go to eat in Fort Yukon and only one store. She would add an airport delivery from Pizza Hut to her monthly grocery order.
She said that the only delivery options at the airport were pizza and Chinese food.
People living in places with no restaurants or grocery stores have access to all the cuisines the nearest city has to offer thanks to the ubiquity of food-delivery services.
Delivery-food orders are on nearly every flight when Mr. Golike travels to locations in Prince William Sound.
Robert May, the owner of Midnight Air, said that the air-taxi service carries DoorDash and other food delivery services on its flights about three times a week. Lake and Peninsula Airlines is a regional carrier that serves the Lake Clark and Kuskokwim regions of southwest Alaska.
Delivery apps have made city food more available to people with no access to the state's main road system. The company set up a large tent in the parking lot where drivers can place their orders before leaving the office.
Ms. Owen said that people in rural Alaska sometimes order groceries from the nearest city, but many practice a traditional lifestyle and harvest their own food.
If a passenger is coming or going, most airlines will stop in a remote community. When that happens, people in the village know they should use DoorDash, or a local expediter, or both, someone who runs odd jobs for people. The food delivery driver will pick up the order and bring it to the airline. Rural Alaskans can pay anywhere from $10 to $30 to get their food to the plane, depending on the destination and the weight of the food.
Many people find the expense worthwhile because there are no roads to connect them to fast food. Paying an expediter or DoorDashing something to our office and paying $20 is not that expensive compared to going into town.
An unexpected storm can cause flights to be canceled and leave planes on the tarmac. Food orders have to be eaten or put in cold storage.
If you have all this DoorDash sitting there, our staff in Alaska will eat it and then pay for it, and try to ship it out the next day.
Expediters are a key part of rural life. Caiti O'Connor and her twin sister, Shari, started an expediting business in the fall of 2020.
The sisters help rural Alaskans with various chores, like picking up pets at the airport for doctor's appointments in town, storing vehicles or dropping off $300 worth of Panda Express food at the airport for an employee appreciation party on St. Paul Island.
We like to think of ourselves as the cousins in Anchorage.
The takeout-by-plane business is so popular that in June 2020 a 40 year old woman bought a Papa Murphy's franchise and set up a second business, Alaska Sky Pie, which arranges the shipping of frozen pizzas, cakes and party.
She said she can ship pizzas to most villages for less than $5 a 16-inch pie. Shipping is free with 10 pizzas.
In the summer, when Alaskans are busy fishing and hunting, she sends out 25 to 50 pizzas a week. In the fall and winter, there are several hundred pizzas a day. Ms. Taylor sends pizzas to remote parts of Alaska for a number of occasions, including birthdays, graduations, funerals, weddings and proms.
She said she has a strong respect for the struggles of the bush.
She said she received a note from a girl in the village who ordered her pizzas.
I have seen a pizza on TV, but I have never had one.
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