You definitely should be purchasing enough supplies to last at least a month if not more. Some people are purchasing way, way more than that, sometimes with the goal of reselling it, see below for a rather extreme example:
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If he would have been reasonable, i.e. selling the sanitizer for $3 per bottle instead of $70 per bottle he wouldnāt have had to donate everything. Pigs get slaughtered
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Too good just to post in Cats thread! 
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While we have loads of shelf-stable and frozen stuff, we were not looking forward to going with fresh veggies once our current stash was out. However, the local farmers market org that usually just sells commercially, delivering orders that can be be sourced from something like 37 different farmers/vendors, opened services to individuals as long as you order at least $100 of stuff. Lots of the quantities offered are too large for us or for most households, but we were able to get a variety of greens, onions, carrots, beets, apples, herbs, chicken, eggs, cheese, etc. They put out order forms/do deliveries 2x/week. Itās cool to see groups like that stepping up in key ways to provide for the community, both consumers and the local farmers who need people to buy their goods (Iām assuming restaurant orders are way down).
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Undoubtedly will be buying perishables at grocery (like bread, milk and meat) but only if things do not get totally out of hand here in Seattle area. I I have enough basic foods to get by in starvation mode for at least a month if the number of cases around here keeps climbing past my comfort level to avoid the virus.
Iāve been quarantining freshly bought groceries in a second fridge or in the garage for a few days ājust in caseā even though thereās no guarantee that will really work. And wiping down everything in my car before I drive home, washing hands after I unload the bags etc etc. Iām not usually paranoid or germ phobic all the time but the rate of spread here has got me spooked. I do not plan on getting within 6 feet of another person (except my wife) for a while.
I just found out today about the āsenior hourā at some grocery chains and plan to stick to that time frameā¦I expect any diabetic is eligible for that. The good thing about is it will be first thing in morning before a dayās worth of sneezes has roamed through the store.
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A friend and I became concerned in early February and have been stocking up since that time. If you had told me a month ago that the world would mostly be shut down now, Iād have thought you were crazy. Iām definitely concerned about going out (I was out yesterday and it felt quite scary to me), so I would definitely take advantage of special store hours or try to connect with someone without any underlying conditions who can make a grocery run. Iāve decided Iām not going out till next week when Iāll need fresh produce. Maybe the stores will be a bit calmer and actually have food in stock. Stores are insane this week with huge lines around the building (even before opening) and empty shelves most of the time, from what Iāve seen and experienced.
I saw on the news the other day images from somewhere in the USA with restaurants and pubs exploding with people. I read an article about the same thing happening in our city (we definitely have community spread of COVID-19 here). Only time will tell whether enough of us have taken drastic actions to have a positive impact.
Here in Canada we were told to buy enough supplies to self-isolate for a couple of weeks. I think, for those of us who need to self-isolate for who knows how long due to chronic illnesses or age, itās reasonable to stock up for a longer period of time. I think what they are trying to stop people from buying ridiculous amounts of a single item (like Iāve heard of people literally clearing shelves of an item and saw a picture on Facebook of someone with an entire cart filled entirely with meat). In my apartment building Iām putting in orders for groceries with friends who are also trying to minimize trips to the store due to chronic conditions that put them at risk. My parents are going to get my brother to pick up groceries for them from now on until the situation improves.
What are people wiping down groceries and packages with? I have two packages here delivered in the past two days that have just been sitting by my door. Iāve wiped some groceries down with wet wipes, but I really doubt that does much to remove any potential viruses. My mom went shopping yesterday (I lectured her for going, she lives down the street from an outbreak location) and got totally freaked out by a guy coughing repeatedly in the store without covering his mouth. So I definitely do feel the need to clean or sanitize groceries in some way before bringing them into my kitchen.
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I would go with soap and water to clean the vegetables. A diluted bleach solution sitting on the outside of packages would be what I would use if it was packaged in plastic and I was worried.
Good idea for the fruits and veggies. I usually just rinse them under water (which I donāt think is actually sufficient even for removing pesticides, ha).
I donāt have bleach, and neither do local stores. With most packages, Iām trying to open them, dump the contents into another container, toss the packages, and clean my hands.
I do have hydrogen peroxide, but not sure how effective that would be compared to bleach.
Can a neighbor give you even a cup of bleach? All you need for a dilute solution would be like a tablespoon or two to a gallon of room temp water.
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Thanks for the suggestion! Iāve made a trade of some hand sanitizer for bleach. 
(Man, crazy timesā¦)
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Glad you were able to get some. With that you are in good shape for a long time. Disinfecting plastic all around. Please note just like counters it helps if you can let it sit for 5 minutes before you wipe off.
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someone in my building complex tested positive but they wonāt say who it is or in which building they live. so now weāve got this virus just floating around. not only are we using the stairs instead of the elevator, we r not taking advantage of the āseniorā time for the laundry room; simply too afraid that there is not enough room for SDing (same reason we r not taKing the elevator.)
we wipe down everything BEFORE we even bring it into our home. first spraying with Lysol, then wiping down with Clorox wipes, then unpacking and wiping each product down, then running under water to remove the Clorox,etc (if food, produce, etc) then removing our coats, mask and then gloves (last) and then washing our hands and fingers thoroughly with antibacterial soap and water. (and of course we remove the empty containers, boxes, etc ASAP from our home.) God only knows what may be lingering in the air.
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Jen,
You can make bleach.
The single pack is not available on Amazon, but the 6 pack of calcium hypochlorite can still be purchased, and the delivery is still very quick.
8 tablespoons of calcium hypochlorite per quart of water makes bleach. Pretty simple!
I have some, I can send it to you if you want.
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As long as you can give the produce 24 hours before eating it, you donāt need to take any special precautions beyond normal washing. The virus doesnāt live on porous surfaces past that point. We either immediately throw out or sanitize any plastic containers (it can live up 72 hours on those). Non perishables in cardboard hang out in the mudroom (decontamination zone now) for 24 hours before we do anything with them. Wash hands and any surfaces that touch not yet safe containers etc.
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FYI Bleach: My husband found high-strength bleach at WalMart in the swimming pool supplies area.
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