I just checked my ASDA order for this coming Monday (which I placed a fortnight ago) and everything, except for one item, is out of stock. I'm genuinely worried I'm going to have no food fairly soon.
Being dependent on deliveries has never been a problem before. I've been getting my food delivered since 2012, and I've pretty much taken it for granted. I never entertained the possibility of not being able to get the food I wanted when I wanted it. Such is my Western society privilege.
The FT reported on 20th March that manufacturers are ramping up production to keep up with demand, so I wasn't unduly concerned. However, there have been numerous reports of people bulk buying and hoarding food in the news, and last week's Panorama reported that food transports have been rationed, so supermarket shelves are still empty.
A friend suggested MREs (Meal, Ready-to-Eat), which the Forces issue to soldiers, and the like. Out of curiosity, I searched for them online. Every website is sold out for the next few months. There's a 3-month wait for new stocks. Everyone has gone crazy over this pandemic.
I didn't buy extra food with my last grocery order 2 weeks ago, and have been living off porridge and takeaways for the last week, which is not financially sustainable. People offering to go to the supermarket for me is lovely, but not much good if there's nothing on the shelves to buy!
If everyone bought what they needed, instead of selfishly buying more than they could possibly eat in a week, this wouldn't be an issue. Sadly, panic is highly infectious – more so than COVID-19 – and the majority of people tend to go into survival mode, which prioritises the individual's needs above everyone else's. And here we are, with empty shelves, and people like myself, who didn't panic in the beginning, suddenly facing the possibility of going without.
I don't think I'll starve just yet. I still have lots of porridge (by coincidence, I decided to try a couple of different brands for preference a few weeks back, so I have a couple of kilos), several boxes of cereal bars, and lots of out-of-date tins I never got around to disposing of, so I should be OK for a couple of weeks, but after that I'm going to struggle.
But I can't deny there is a tiny fist in my stomach, and a quiet, but shrill little voice in the back of my mind every time I go into the kitchen and open my fridge, which contains a very out-of-date block of Italian cheese, 2 tubs of Lurpak, an almost empty jar of olives, the same of pesto sauce, an ancient jar of beetroot, 4 eggs and 3 tortillas. I defy Jamie Oliver to make a main meal out of that(!) (I already made a herby scrambled egg wrap from 2 eggs and a tortilla wrap. It wasn't great.)
I know there are people starving in the world. I know I should be grateful to have enough to keep my belly filled for a fortnight, however boring and repetitive my diet might be. But my Western society privilege is indignant that I don't have bread to make toast for my scrambled eggs, or my usual selection of ready meals upon which I've come to depend.
If I were able bodied, I could shop around for food, and get creative in the kitchen. I was a decent cook. However, my disability means that I can't even go to one shop, far less several, and I no longer have the stamina required to cook a meal. So I don't know what I'm going to do. I'll have to wait and see if my ASDA delivery brings me more than peshwari naan and proceed from there!
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