Helping the City’s Kids
We hope you are healthy and in good spirits! Our family feels very fortunate because we are in good health, are able to work from home, have a fast internet connection, and have a lovely network of friends as a support system.
Our family has been trying to make the best of the time together by going out for walks, family dance parties at home, virtual meetings with friends, and volunteering. This last one is very important right now. Unfortunately there are many in our community who are in dire need of basic necessities.
Charlottesville City Schools have partnered with several local organizations to provide meals for children under 18 in our community. Along with that, teachers and volunteers are in constant contact with families to help them navigate aid sources and support them during the stay at home orders. This effort includes outreach to families that have just recently arrived in the country, don’t know the language well, and don’t have an established support network.
Charlottesville City Schools needs volunteers to help distribute food to families in need. You can go here to sign up to volunteer for food distribution. You can also send monetary contributions to the efforts to feed and keep these families afloat by donating to the CCS partners that are contributing to these efforts:
Cleaning and Disinfecting: Best Practices
SARS-CoV4 — this is a link to a 74 page .pdf pamphlet on cleaning and disinfecting for COVID-19 that was written for small businesses, but of course it’s of use to anyone. The slides above are probably the best section of the pamphlet.
Safe Grocery Shopping Tips
Updated 4/7/20
This is an attempt to put out a summary of safe guidelines for people to follow while grocery shopping. This checklist is pulled from several credible sources as well as personal experience. But I am not a medical professional and make no claims these guidelines are infallible. Neither I nor anyone else can provide guidelines for grocery shoppers that would reduce the risk of catching the virus to zero. We are all learning more about COVID-19 every day. It’s a new virus and it’s hard to study because the data is incomplete (e.g. lack of testing in the US; incomplete reporting from China; different models of reporting fatalities from Great Britain, etc) and it’s happening in real time. So, with these caveats in mind, please read on. And if you have anything to add or correct, please do so. I can be reached at jon@jon-rice.com.
The good news at this point (4/7/20), is that there is still no conclusive evidence that the virus is being spread by food containers or food itself. The available evidence at this point suggests the intensity of the virus varies directly with one’s level of exposure to it (see the New York Times, 4/1/20, These Coronavirus Exposures Might Be the Most Dangerous:
As with any other poison, viruses are usually deadlier in larger amounts). The main way the virus is spread is human-to-human contact. The bad news, however, is that grocery store workers at least elsewhere in the country are getting sick and dying (see The Washington Post, 4/7/20, Grocery workers are beginning to die of coronavirus).
So the first rule about trips to the grocery store remains: go as few times as possible. [Read more…]
Cville360 broadcast Tues. (3/31) at 11am
You can watch the city’s broadcast live on
- Comcast channel 10
- the city’s website.
- the city’s Facebook page
