3 Ways to Deliver Food to Friends During a Pandemic

How does one deliver food to their friends during quarantine while respecting social distancing regulations? Believe it or not, there are a few methods you can follow to safely transport food to your loved one.

Right now, people need all the comfort they can get, and if that means eating a home-cooked meal (courtesy of you) or one from a local business, then that's exactly what they should get. Here are three such ways you can make that happen for them without greatly risking yourself of exposure.

Leave the food on their doorstep

We all appreciate a home-cooked meal from time to time, and some people may even depend on a little extra assistance right now. If you want to deliver food to a friend or family member, the safest way to do so is to prepare the food without touching it with your hands. Wear gloves and use utensils to maneuver the food in the pan while it's cooking. Once it's done, move the contents in the pan directly to a container, but again, make sure to do so without touching the food with your hands.

If the recipient's house isn't within walking distance and you need to drive or bike there, just make sure to sanitize your hands after touching the car door, steering wheel, or bike handles before picking up the container again. You can let your friend know you are coming to drop off the food, but keep the transaction contactless by dropping off the containers outside of their door. And finally, encourage your friend to wipe down the outside of the containers with a disinfectant wipe, as the virus is believed to live on plastic and stainless steel surfaces for up to three days.

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Pickup a to-go order from a restaurant

If you don't feel like cooking and would also prefer to support a local restaurant, you could always place an order either online or by calling to see if they offer curbside carry-out or have a walk-up window. Then, in a similar fashion that you would deliver a home-cooked meal, leave it outside of their door for them to retrieve once you're at the end of the driveway or already down the street. Also, make sure to sanitize your hands after handling the packages.

Place an order through a delivery service

Another option would be to place an order through a delivery service such as Grubhub, which offers a no contact feature. You could remove yourself from the delivery process entirely by going this route because you select the address the meal delivers to. This may be the best option, especially if you fall within the high-risk category of having severe complications from COVID-19.

Just make sure to press the no-contact option on the app; this is increasingly becoming more important as new research is beginning to suggest the wind can carry infectious respiratory droplets up to 20 feet away or more. In other words, the six feet rule may not be as strong of a benchmark as we previously thought.