Resources for help getting food during quarantine and safe handling of food

Hi! The past few days I've received some meetup notices about young, healthy people cause of the coronavirus forming meetup groups of volunteers to go the grocery store and run errands for those of us self-quarantined cause of age or health conditions.

There may be some in your area too. Just an idea, check out meetup.com in your area and search with the words that might have this.

There is also other kinds of volunteer groups on there. Perhaps someone from one of those would be of help.

And maybe nextdoor.com one can find some help too.

Times like this brings out the best in people yet be careful to screen with nextdoor and maybe meetup cause these times can bring out the worst in some people too.

Thinking also for us homebound or need help with ME possibly through this one can make some connections or friendships that would be of help after all this is over.

Please add other resources if you run across some that may help.

Take good care everyone, the best that you can.
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Moderator note: Information specific for the UK has been moved to this thread.

 

What a great idea! I may be cynical, but i'm struggling to imagine the youth of my area doing something like this. Though i may be pleasantly surprised

 

It appears that chicken is now difficult to find in Canada, US and UK supermarkets. I had to buy expensive organic whole chickens last week because everything else was sold out, and regular whole chickens were unavailable 2 weeks prior to that. What is up with that?

 

One of my local grocery stores (in the US) was only letting 10 people in the door every 10 minutes. I'm not sure if that was intended to promote "social distancing" or if it may have been a kind psychological strategy based on the assumption that large crowds promote panic buying. At any rate, I was able to find things - like bread, milk and chicken - that were cleaned out at other stores, but it may have just been a matter of luck (or, more likely, a matter of people being unwilling to stand in line).

 

I received an email from my supermarket informing us that they will be allowing only a certain amount of people at a time for busy stores for distancing, and to allow everyone to get their groceries without stress. They've reassured everyone that the stores are fully stocked up and nothing is running out.

 

I think that's true. The store I mentioned above and some others have reduced their hours (basically closing at 8PM instead of midnight). The store said it gives them time to restock their shelves. When I heard that I thought that the idea might be to try to reduce panic buying by having full shelves.

 

Right now my support worker is out buying groceries. I have enough for a couple of days. Its likely that many things, if not most, will not be available.

The good news in Australia with our Woolworths grocery chain is that pensioners, including disabled, can apply for priority home delivery of supplies. I might be doing that later today.

 

As I suspected a lot of things were not available to buy. The surprise was that even frozen vegetables are not available. Most basics like bread are limited to two loaves ... and it does not matter that I only get my groceries once every two weeks. I will have to look into priority home ordering, as I mentioned in my last post.

 

that’s great! They should all be doing that

 

Moved from
Coronavirus - worldwide spread and control

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjDuwc9KBps

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Have you ever heard of Huel? They do meal replacement powdered drinks and granola. It has everything nutrient you need but it tastes like an oat milkshake. The granola is more palatable but a bit more expensive.

They are getting low on stock but there are still some available. It might not be something you’re interested in but it’s nutritious food that’s available and the powder has a 12 month shelf life.

edited to add - you can cook with the powder too which is something I’ve not tried but pancakes and such like can be made.

 

Moderator note: a large number of posts about safe food handling have been moved here from
Coronavirus - worldwide spread and control

It says that any soap or detergent will kill the virus..... ??? is that accurate? I thought that soap was only effective at loosening the particles from skin/object so it could be rinsed under running water, I didn't think detergent killed it...
Wondering what the evidence is/if there has been any new evidence proving that soap will kill it.
@Jonathan Edwards
I'm still using alcohol/1:10 bleach solution, have I missed some new development or are you still using meths?

 

Yes, because the virus needs its lipid outer layer to function - here's an article about it in The Guardian. I heard on the radio that that's why we need to keep up the handwashing for 20 seconds because that's how long it takes for that lipid layer to start breaking down.

 

Old fashioned soap is very good at killing micro-organisms through a combination of alkaline pH (which most cells hate) and detergent effect breaking down protein/lipid aggregates of membranes or other structures.

Viruses are different from cells as such but the delicate structure of the outer surface that is needed to infect cells is likely to be disrupted by soap. Other detergents will also disrupt but do not have the alkaline effect, which can also denature proteins.

So soap is good option but messy and impractical for some things.

 

@Sean @Sasha @Jonathan Edwards thanks for that very helpful. So does the soap need to be applied neat/in strong concentrations? or for example in a bowl of hot soapy water like you would wash your dishes in?

 

Most detergent work at or below a 1% level, but stronger is likely to act quicker. I don't think I have a precise answer - maybe strong enough to get grease and egg off!

 

thanks that makes sense. Do you think strong washing up liquid is better than diluted 1:10 bleach then, or about the same?

Also does the 'detergent' action cover laundry detergent too? eg biological wash powder.... thus making it unnecessary to wash home made masks on a very hot wash cycle?