April's Food News
Food Industry Employment Program Newsletter
Food Safety First
Noncompliance=Death
Dear
Oops, where did April go?
There is so much food news that I think I spent the whole month just catching up with less than 10% of it. I've been following the situation in the meat and poultry processing plants which lead to an Executive Order on April 28th stating that they were critical infrastructure. There is an excellent summary of the implications of this order here. If these companies took proper social distancing measures combined with implementing an even stronger HACCP Plan then reopening becomes a more feasible solution. Without those two things, it seems like a recipe for more sick people. Speaking of HACCP plans, is yours up to date? Click here to schedule a call so we can check.
I am deeply concerned about the health and safety of all our food chain workers especially as the companies have shown little respect for their health up to now. Is meat that essential that we are willing to take people's lives and health to get it?
People Lack Food
Additionally I am deeply concerned about the fact that many people cannot get food for whatever reason be it financial, scared to go to the store, too many family responsibilities etc. We can do better! While this time of uncertainty is new to us, as I wrote in a recent blog post, our grandparents, and parents in some cases, who lived in the 1930s and 1940s had over 15 years of uncertainty what with the Great Depression and then World War 2. Check out my post and find out what you can do to help your friends and neighbors.
Self Care
I was ill for much of April! Not THE virus, fortunately. I had a couple of days with hives all over my body and it took about 2 weeks for me to feel completely better. To be honest, at first I was fighting through my tiredness and exhaustion. Until it finally occurred to me that even if I did not know the reason for hives, it did mean that my immune system was over active and that was using up lots of my energy. After that I rested and started feeling stronger again.
This is a message to you to be gentle with yourself. Take a nap! Sit and read. Slow down and enjoy nature. Chat to your family. Listen or make music. Do what builds you up! What are you doing to practice Self Care? Let me know.
This isn't a race! It isn't even a marathon. This is life.
Food Safety
Pandemic or not, you still need to wash your damn hands all the time and you still need to make your food safely! Not sure how to do this during the pandemic? Send me a message and we can chat.
Please let me know how you are doing. I miss you all!
All the best,
Cathy