Observing the stay-at-home order during the coronavirus pandemic requires individuals to do whatever they can to remain at home and limit travel to necessities: acquiring food and medical care, and going to work for “essential” workers and front-line healthcare staff.
As a result, going to the grocery can become an exotic pleasure – the one excuse you have to break your house arrest. But it can also be a source of stress and anxiety. Every time you go to the grocery store, risk exposure increases for you, and others around you.
These tips and insights, collected from staff at the Office of Sustainability, are meant to optimize your grocery shopping trips in order to minimize future needs to go out. They can go a long way in protecting your own health, and the health of the essential workers at the grocery and other places, simply by preventing encounters and opportunities for transmission.
In addition to increasing efficiency in your food procurement and management at home, these tips aim to reduce packaging and food waste, provide flexibility, and save money.
We also invite you to seek the balance between shopping for what you need to keep you at home for a couple of weeks at a time, versus stockpiling for worst-case scenarios. Panic buying just contributes to shortages — and more panic, so please do not horde food and supplies. There are many assurances that supply chains are strong and farmers and food producers are working diligently to ensure there is plenty of food to eat.