March of 2020 has, for most people, was the mark of the beginning of the craziest time of their lives. We were forced to stay inside, limit social contact, and refrain from using most public facilities. This included restaurants. Majority of the population was used to eating out, as going out to eat has been the least time consuming plan, as well as many favorite foods being held within. Removing that choice has changed the diet plan of many families, so what have people been eating for the past year?
A lot of us are used to eating fast food after school. Heading to McDonald’s and various boba places after school was the common normal among many students, and now that places are closed it has forced alternative eating options to be executed. In the beginning of the shelter-in-place order, mostly everything was closed and at points you couldn’t even take things to go. There were extremely strict rules and social distancing was heavily enforced. Months later, places have opened up for drive-thrus, takeout, and even delivery.
Joseph Hawkins, a senior at Logan, has told us about his eating changes over the last few months.
“My family isn’t huge on home-cooked meals, we usually go out somewhere together or get food for all of us to share and bring it home,” Hawkins said. “So when everything was closed we started to take more trips to the grocery store to buy things for the meals we then had to cook, which was fine but very new.”
Another Logan senior, William Woon, gave us his input on quarantine meal alternatives.
“I’ve definitely been goin out less, doing more cooking at home, I’ve been cooking homemade food that I normally wouldn’t cook that i order at restaurants and I’ve been getting into that. Eating kinda bad at first but now eating better. Overall i’ve been eating healthier at home, so it’s a better alternative. I prefer how I’m eating now compared to before because it’s cooler to cook my own stuff,” Woon said.
A student from John F. Kennedy High School by the name of Symantha Owsley was kind enough to tell us about the changes in food consumption she underwent.
“We used to Doordash more, and we still do, but a lot less. We’ve been saving a lot more money. We go to the store and get groceries, and my grandma cooks most of the time,” she began. “Personally, I’ve been eating less recently.. I haven’t been as hungry as before. But at the same time, it honestly makes me feel a lot healthier. When this covid stuff is over, the first thing I am getting is P.F Changs,” Owsley said.
Personally I think I’ve had a huge change in my eating habits. We would go out a lot and eat fast-food and hit a lot of drive-thrus. We would get snacks when we go out and would usually end up eating unhealthy and things that are bad for us. Now that we’ve been forced to stay home, our diet has completely changed. We’ve had home-cooked meals pretty much everyday, my mom has made a lot of new things since this whole pandemic unfolded. We’ve been eating healthier, smarter, and even a healthier portion. I’ve even lost some weight!
Although everything is crazy around us, it’s brought my family together more. We eat together more often, and actually sit with each other at the table. Food is one of those things that easily brings people together and can bring life to any time of day. It’s something people love and cherish and has been a part of EVERYONE’s lives. And forcing people to stay home and eat with their families could be the reason why a lot of us have had happier days.
