COVID-19 Revival

Through all of this, I’ve been watching on the sidelines, feeling helpless. I’ve been in a relatively good position – the startup I work for did go through some pay cuts but I’m fairly financially secure, able to work from home 100% of the time, and I’m equipped with the skills to keep myself fed with healthy food. Now, as new CDC guidelines are encouraging more Americans to limit their grocery shopping to once every two weeks, I’ve found my way to help. Over the coming weeks, I plan to share tips to help you:

• Shop to limit your grocery trips to once every 10-14 days
• Plan meals that will help you make the most of what you have on hand
• Learn techniques and recipes to help you stretch your food supplies

For Posterity’s Sake, Here’s What’s Up
It’s been about 7 years since my last blog post here. I’ve moved across country again (from South Carolina to Seattle), built a career in technology operations and program management, and largely been focusing on things other than writing. Then, everything changed.

A new coronavirus emerged in China at the end of 2019. It was nasty, hitting the lungs hard, resulting in many hospitalizations and deaths. In the US, we watched from the outside, thinking it wouldn’t hit us. Then, as happens with global travel, cases started cropping up in the US. Here in Seattle, we were home of the first known COVID-19 case on January 21. Community spread started happening. Evergreen Healthcare, an elder care facility, got contaminated, resulting in over 40 deaths.

We quickly became the first hotspot in the country – local tech companies began by allowing voluntary work from home, then made it mandatory. The King County health department issued stricter cleanliness policies for area restaurants. People traveled less and started cooking at home more. As Seattle started to slow down, cases began emerging in other parts of the country. On March 12, Governor Jay Inslee closed schools in King, Pierce, and Snohomish county. On March 15, a stricter order came through closing restaurant dining rooms (take out and delivery still allowed), and closing entertainment, recreational facilities, and gyms. Gatherings of more than 10 were banned, then weddings and funerals, except family only graveside visits. Businesses except essentials like pharmacies, grocery stores, and key manufacturing have closed under statewide stay at home orders. As of today, April 5, Washington has had 7,591 confirmed cases and 314 deaths – and we are considered to be doing well. We have ‘flattened the curve.’

Other places haven’t been nearly as lucky. The NYC metro is a new hot spot, as are California, Louisiana, and Florida. Currently New York, New Jersey, Michigan, California, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Illinois all have more confirmed COVID-19 cases than Washington. NY, NJ, MI, LA, and CA all have more deaths than Washington. To date, there have been 332,993 cases and 9,528 deaths in the US. Spain and Italy have been hit hard, and cases are growing in Europe, Africa, and South America.

On top of this, there has been a huge economic impact as over 6 million Americans have lost their jobs due to stay at home orders or because people are no longer shopping and dining out. The main directive to reduce spread of the virus has been ‘social distancing’ – limit your proximity to people outside your household. This has meant reducing dining out, closing schools and universities, and even releasing prisoners early. In the span of about 6 weeks, the national food supply chain has been disrupted as restaurant and institutional food usage has nearly stopped, and people are now eating almost all their meals at home.