I am Charlene Court from the out of Virginia. My friends and I are following the guideline

and are carefully cloistered at home. To make coping easier we have discovered the pleasure

of driveway picnics. I take my own long chair and lunch and meet my friends in their driveway.

We maintain a safe distance, enjoy being outside and appreciate the non-electronics social

time. Then I pack up my chair and wave goodbye. Now I'm leaving my chair in the car always

ready for the next picnic. This is NPR's life kit. I'm Maria Gidoy. The vast majority

of the country is under lockdown right now, but state home orders come with a few exceptions,

like grocery shopping. Many of us are still venturing out to stock up on food and toiletries,

but what's the safest way to shop during this pandemic and what should you do once you've

brought your whole home? This episode I sit down with all things considered host Mary Louise

Kelly to explain what I learned from infectious disease, verology and food safety experts.

Aussure tips about safe grocery shopping and what you can stop worrying about.

So we've gotten lots and lots of questions from listeners on this topic. So many that I think

I'm basically going to turn this over to them and let our listeners ask you most of the questions.

Let's dive right in. The first one comes from Patty Millage of Davis, California. She called

in with this question. My question is, what is the best way to stay safe while grocery shopping?

I wonder about the question of contamination at the bottoms of carts and hand carried baskets.

Jeremy Gunky bottoms of baskets and carts. Maria, what should we do? Look, I have talked to a lot of

experts about this and they all agree that actually the biggest risk when it comes to grocery shopping is

being in the store itself with other people because you don't know if they're infected or not and they

might not know either. But given that many people do have to go to the grocery store right now, our

expert Donald Schaffner of Rutgers University says, don't make this a hangout trip. Think of it

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