Special Report
How to Buy Food for a 14-Day Quarantine (and How Not To)
March 27, 2020 6:44 pm
Last Updated: April 15, 2020 11:01 am
These days, in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, “quarantine” no longer sounds like some obscure concept from medieval times, and “isolation” means something considerably different than simply living in a place with spotty cellphone reception and no broadband.
Medical professionals now define Isolation as the separation of those with a contagious disease — like COVID-19 — from those who aren’t sick. Quarantine, on the other hand, separates and restricts the movement of those who were exposed to the disease but haven’t yet become ill — for instance, people returning from a coronavirus hotspot.
It isn’t known how many people around the country have been asked to quarantine themselves or have self-quarantined, but the number is surely growing exponentially. And one concern of those who are under quarantine — as well as anyone who’s simply obeying government advice to “shelter in place” — is making sure they have enough food and household necessities. But how much is enough?
A Polish startup called Omni Calculator, that creates custom-built calculators covering hundreds of subjects, has provided guidance with a free interactive tool called Quarantine Food Calculator — Coronavirus.
Created by Joanna Michałowska, a PhD candidate at Poland’s Poznan University of Medical Sciences, the tool lets people input the number of household members and quarantine time, then estimates dietary needs in four categories: fruit and vegetables, perishable foods, non-perishable foods, and canned or frozen foods — the kinds of things you might buy at the best grocery store chain in every state.
Click here to learn how to buy food for a 14-day quarantine.
The tool’s site also includes sample meal plans, links to other pertinent calculators (including one on social distancing and another on stimulus payments), and a number of specific recommendations on how to shop when stocking up for two weeks of quarantine. Be careful what you buy, in any case — these are foods that spoil faster than you’d think.
Omni Calculator’s recommendations appear, paraphrased and slightly rearranged, below.
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