Food in the Time of COVID-19
April 2020
We’re hunkered down as Covid-19 spreads across the world, creating bigger and bigger circles on those daily maps put out by John Hopkins University. Terrifying predictions plague us like fire-breathing dragons. Grandmas learn Zoom to connect with their kids, while armies of angels deliver meals to the vulnerable. Toilet paper and masks remain the golden tickets, but women have taken the mask shortage into their own homebound hands, turning their secret stash of fabrics into much-sought-after masks. Elastic for the masks is hard to find, but women are ingenious and new designs emerge. As we shelter in place seeking purpose and relief, stories of cooking rise like homemade dough. Stress baking has emptied stores of basics like flour, while mothers use their culinary nooks as chemistry labs for their stay-at-home children. Family meals have become a structure in this blurry time.
Our new heroes are the medical warriors; right behind those caregivers I place food workers. They could exchange their aprons for super hero capes. The stations along the way to get food on our tables have been officially deemed essential during the Covid-19 crisis. They include immigrants in the fields, couples and their kids barely making it on the family farm, warehouse loaders, truck drivers, those stocking grocery shelves, and cashiers now hopefully protected by plastic shields. At the end of this long line of providers the results of planting are reaped in some cook’s hands and imagination.
Whether your local pub grub -- now to-go only -- or aromas filling your kitchen, the pandemic reminds us of the essentiality of food. Even with so many businesses shut down, we have food. For that we can be grateful, because food is comfort. It sustains us. Food is another slice in the pie of survival.
When I put together my website, I hadn’t planned to write a blog, but desperate times and all that. Besides, quarantine can mean we have time on our hands. So here I am. Together, though apart, we’ll see where this takes us. Maybe this blog will be short-lived, hopefully only for a limited spell. We all dream and pray for the swift finale of this coronavirus.