Community Chat

[reiki604]

Can you contact your place of worship or any senior agencies for help or information? 

[RollTide2008]

What are you ordering? Do your settings allow for substitutions?

I’ve been shopping once a week since my state cancelled school. While the paper and cleaning aisles have been mostly bare, I haven’t had to do without much. I have had to be flexible with brands and sizes and flavors. For example, I haven’t been able to buy my preferred brand of coffee until today, but there has consistently been coffee available.

[stevieb]

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@Sooner wrote:

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@stevieb wrote:

No food, no Kleenex, no toilet paper, no cleaning products, no masks... Instead of our leaders at all levels rattling on and on about the medical aspects of the situation, which clearly they, nor the supposed medical experts, have a clue how to contain or eliminate, some of them really should, by now, have turned their attention to the fact that the population needs food and essentials. Whenever I see someone waxing eloquent about this great land of ours, I feel compelled to point out that no aspect of this crisis has been or is being handled at all well and in fact, others have done a better job. When something 'unprecedented' happens, we require creative solutions and we're not seeing any. We've essentially been relegatded to living in a 3rd world country.

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@stevieb Yes.  A pandemic tends to level to playing field to what is normal life in the 3d world.  Most of the 1st world has been shut down.  And in Europe, countries are a lot smaller and populations not as scattered or as large as the US. 

Nobody expected this or planned for it.  No country that I am aware of was prepaired for it.  So I think in light of everything our infrastructure is still at work--we have water, light, electricity and food and necessities, so in light of everything we are blessed. 

Do we have what we want exactly? No.  But we are trying to help those most affected, see that nobody starves, and for the most part pull together to get things done and food to people.  

It is an unprecedented global disaster, and considering I am not going to seond guess anything. 

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Different perspectives @Sooner. We're allowed... It's an oversimplification to belittle or to imply those who see this as more than a mere 'incovenience' are somehow unreasonable... In too many instances, it's not a matter of moaning about forgoing what we 'want', which we might all agree is unreasonable right now, but of not having what we need. There's a pretty big difference and as you see here, there are people who do not have adequate food, can't seem to find it and who also don't have other necessities. I too am seeing neighbors helping neighbors, which is heartening, but what I'm not seeing is any local, regional or national authority taking control and doing much of anything except telling us to wash our hands, keep our distance and stay in 'if we can', knowing full well that for most of us, if we want to eat, we can't... Agreed, a disaster tends to level the playing field, but some of us will have to be excused for thinking the supposedly 'best and brightest' would have had some kind of a game plan for disaster. Clearly we don't... And when it gets right down to it, yes we are a large country with a large population, but other larger countries with larger populations don't appear to be quite as continually devastated as are we...

[bunnygirlbrem]

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@stevieb wrote:

No food, no Kleenex, no toilet paper, no cleaning products, no masks... Instead of our leaders at all levels rattling on and on about the medical aspects of the situation, which clearly they, nor the supposed medical experts, have a clue how to contain or eliminate, some of them really should, by now, have turned their attention to the fact that the population needs food and essentials. Whenever I see someone waxing eloquent about this great land of ours, I feel compelled to point out that no aspect of this crisis has been or is being handled at all well and in fact, others have done a better job. When something 'unprecedented' happens, we require creative solutions and we're not seeing any. We've essentially been relegated to living in a 3rd world country.

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I love everything you have said except for the "relegated to living in a 3rd world country." Except for maybe in the most critically poor areas of this country, we are nowhere near third-world status, not even "second-world." But great eloquence on everything else! :-)

[bunnygirlbrem]

@josie I would definitely try your (or a) church. There may be people who contacted their pastors, etc. actually looking for someone they could help buy groceries for (I did). 

[happycat]

Spoiler

@SuhseK, I am not needing help, I was trying to help the original poster. We do have an agency who helps elderly, personal home care, and that company is helping elderly and sick in this area, getting them food, medicine, toilet paper (I have no idea where anyone is finding tp, but happy they are)

I hope everyone needing help can get what they need. This is just the saddest thing. 

If any of you have elderly neighbors, or those with children, who are out of school now, and you know the neighbors were having a hard time financially before this happened, just try to ask them if they need anything. You may be surprised at how greatful they are for whatever you can share, there is no greater blessing than to give. 

[hckynut]

@josie 

Since you say "I can't get out", how did you get food prior to the virus? Our stores have items that cost less than before  milk for 1 went from $1.99 a gallon to $1.29.  Bananas went down per pound, and a 3# bag of clementines went down $1 per bag.

You don't have friends or family that will help you? Don't know what else to say except keep trying.

hckynut(john)

[stevieb]

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@chiclets wrote:

There are shortages of medical supplies and medical needs.

There is a lack of food supply getting to the supermarkets.

There is a lack of good hygiene supplies.

There is a lack of helping the elderly. Meals on wheels are all but cancelled in most areas.

The stores advertise the items are available only in the store not for pick-up orders or orders online. When you get to the store at 6AM nothing is on the shelf.

Great, it is suggested we wear masks however the stores we would buy the supplies needed to make those masks are closed.

It is suggested we support take out restaurants. OK. What I am curious in knowing is if the Health Department is monitoring these places and making sure they are clean and using sanitary guidelines when preparing the food. Sure, anyone can wear gloves and masks but if they handle cash while using those gloves and then go back to preparing food, that is not clean handling of food. People are careless when no one can be seen watching them.

Try contacting town government offices for help and see how far that will get you.

We are going to have to survive with what we have. Now I envy those who really stocked up. I criticized them but now I do not.

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@chiclets  Agree and the really upsetting thing is that no entity has been created to take control of the situation. By now, some emergency 'authority' should be managing supply chain issues, so that the whole system isn't in utter disarray... Clearly, the marketplace isn't capable or righting itself. No one is minimizing or dismissing the pervasive nature of this situation, but it's now been weeks and nothing is getting any better that most of us can see. 

[RoughDraft]

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@hckynut wrote:

@josie 

Since you say "I can't get out", how did you get food prior to the virus? Our stores have items that cost less than before  milk for 1 went from $1.99 a gallon to $1.29.  Bananas went down per pound, and a 3# bag of clementines went down $1 per bag.

You don't have friends or family that will help you? Don't know what else to say except keep trying.

hckynut(john)

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@hckynut Perhaps you should re-read the OP's original post.  She apparently has been using Instacart which was able to fulfill her orders UNTIL NOW.  

[stevieb]

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@bunnygirlbrem wrote:

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@stevieb wrote:

No food, no Kleenex, no toilet paper, no cleaning products, no masks... Instead of our leaders at all levels rattling on and on about the medical aspects of the situation, which clearly they, nor the supposed medical experts, have a clue how to contain or eliminate, some of them really should, by now, have turned their attention to the fact that the population needs food and essentials. Whenever I see someone waxing eloquent about this great land of ours, I feel compelled to point out that no aspect of this crisis has been or is being handled at all well and in fact, others have done a better job. When something 'unprecedented' happens, we require creative solutions and we're not seeing any. We've essentially been relegated to living in a 3rd world country.

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I love everything you have said except for the "relegated to living in a 3rd world country." Except for maybe in the most critically poor areas of this country, we are nowhere near third-world status, not even "second-world." But great eloquence on everything else! :-)

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@bunnygirlbrem  The 3rd world comment was related exclusively to the current situation... I agree, overall, until this situation reared its head, we, as a nation and with some serious exceptions, have it reasonably good...