Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: . Common meals? (Sandy Thomson) safety

[Fred-List manager (fholson]

Becca Brackett <ecbrackett [at] cohousing.org>
is the author of the message below.  It was posted by
Fred, the Cohousing-L list manager <fholson [at] cohousing.org>
due to a problem.

--------------------  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS --------------------
- Sandy, I am not in cohousing, but I have advice on food safety.
The most common transmission of Noro Virus that causes  diarrhea
outbreaks ( like on cruise ships)  is that multiple people handle the
serving spoons, serving forks and dishes.
So if you resume potluck dinners,  I would recommend one person in full
protective gear and mask with disposable gloves,  would be serving the
others.
It would be best to share food that is piping hot from  the oven,  or is in
individual servings-  like muffins are going to be handled less than a loaf
of bread which is sliced at the table.   individual sugar or salt packets
not a shaker.
Of course for Covid we are concerned about airborne transmission so the
server is masked and if dining out on a patio is possible  - do that.

Bringing your own dining ware, maybe,  but the commercial dishwashers in
the common house probably sterilize better....
That might be a big job for one person to do clean up, but dishes could go
in the dishwasher and stay there when dry?

Becca Brackett - retired Family Physician


> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Mon, 3 Aug 2020 16:39:33 -0600
> From: Sandy Thomson <sandykthomson [at] gmail.com>
> Subject: [C-L]_ Common meals?
>
> I live in a rural cohousing n SW Colorado.  The amount of covid cases
> around here is pretty small relatively and we are considering going back to
> having common meals in a month or two.  Are any communities still having
> common meals or have gone back to having them? If so what precautions are
> you taking?  We have great outdoor eating and serving space so we are going
> to start with one potluck a month outside on the terrace. Hand sanitizer at
> the beginning and end of the line. People bring their own dishes and take
> them home to wash them.
> Thanks,
> Sandy
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
>