North Andover's Bonnie Miller On Food And The Coronavirus

NORTH ANDOVER, MA — Have you found yourself cooking more during the coronavirus lockdown? The box of instant ramen you bought when the virus first hit has sat untouched?

You're not alone, according to a study by local food historian Bonnie Miller. Miller, a North Andover resident and American Studies professor at UMass Boston, spoke to around fifty families in town about how their food habits have changed in response to the virus.

"Given that many residents were now at home all the time with disrupted routines and no childcare or school for their children, I expected to hear stories about putting on quarantine weight," Miller told Patch. "I expected to hear that people were eating for emotional reasons, like boredom, feeling overwhelmed, or loneliness. I expected to hear stories about residents who were struggling to get the food items they typically acquired and were resorting to hoarding and online shopping."

But that wasn't the case.

"Food had become at least one way families could bond and get closer during these strained times. I loved hearing about the many different rituals families were trying," she said.

>>Read the study: Eating our Way through the COVID-19 Crisis, in the Northern Boston Suburbs

Families were using kitchen tools that usually sit gathering dust, pulling out candles and fine tableware and trying new types of food. Instead of hoarding, residents were responding to shortages by getting creative and learning to cook with new ingredients.

"Families seemed energized to spend more time in the kitchen recreating family recipes or trying new ones with whatever they had available," Miller said.

Many families also told Miller they were also being more careful about limiting food waste than ever before.

Of course, Miller's findings are not universal, as she notes in the study: "These findings are far from definitive, limited by a sample of about fifty families who chose to respond. Personal circumstances are hard to generalize. Many families in town endure varying levels of food insecurity and those in “essential” employments lack the privilege of staying home."

Still, she said, she expects some of the effects to linger.

"It is my hope that families will have created new patterns of cooking and eating that they won’t want to give up so easily, should the economy fully re-open," Miller said.

Concern about food waste will probably linger, Miller predicted, as families remain concerned about future shutdowns or another wave of the virus.

"It is my hope that some of these conservationist habits will be deeply rooted enough to persist, as we are facing many great crises in our future, especially climate change," she said. "We may be forced to adopt less carnivorous eating habits and a more conservationist mindset sooner than we think, so if the Covid-19 crisis happens to provide some training in that, I see that as having value."

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Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.