Covid-19 Food Distribution Policy for Door-to-Door Drop Off

Last updated: March 20, 2020

American HealthCare Group & Farm to Table Policies

Due to the spread of COVID-19 throughout the world, we have changed how we are delivering Supportive Services in public housing. The American HealthCare Group Supportive Services staff is coordinating services for residents remotely. We have changed our services to assist residents in obtaining community connections for health & hygiene products, financial and food assistance.

In order to work in food distribution, all staff must adhere to social distancing throughout the day, even when not at work. We cannot put residents in public housing at risk by inadvertently exposing them to the coronavirus. The following guidelines are to be followed by all staff/volunteers at food distribution sites regarding the handling and distribution of food:

  • All staff/volunteers must wear gloves and a sanitized face mask when handling/delivering food.
  • If you OR ANYONE YOU HAVE BEEN IN CLOSE CONTACT WITH in the last two weeks are experiencing any symptoms of COVID-19, DO NOT come to food distribution sites. Contact a staff member and inform them that you cannot make it.
  • Avoid physical contact with others. Maintain at least six feet of distance between yourself and others whenever possible (six feet is about the height of an average adult man).
  • Wash all surfaces that will touch the food or food packaging and all heavily touched areas (door knobs, sink handles) with a household disinfectant.
  • Wash and dry your hands and put on disposable gloves before touching food or food packaging.
  • Do not touch your face.
  • DO NOT TOUCH YOUR PHONE!
  • If you do touch your face or your phone, remove your gloves, wash your hands again, and put new gloves on before touching any food or food packaging.

Door-to-Door Drop Off:

  • Once ALL surfaces have been disinfected and you have washed your hands and put on mask, gloves, divide the food into bags for individual households.
  • Once all bags have been packed, drop off the bags at each recipient’s door.
    • For apartment buildings, leave one bag at each door, hanging on the door knob.
    • For individual housing units, leave one bag on each porch.
  • Ring the doorbell once you have dropped off the bag, but do not wait for the resident to come out of the house.
  • If someone comes out to collect the food, politely ask them not to come in physical contact with you.
  • Whenever possible, hang the bag on a doorknob leave it on an elevated surface so residents to not have to bend over to pick it up.
  • Keep gloves and mask on while delivering.

Food Deliveries

We are encouraging all sites to adopt door-to-door delivery of food to eliminate large groups of people from congregating. Food donations cannot continue to be dropped at the front door; instead, they need to be delivered to each resident individually. Otherwise, residents will crowd into elevators, lobbies and hall ways to wait for their turn to go outside for the pick-up.