No one expected how 2020 is turning out to be. Plans were made for this upcoming year, but almost everything can’t seem to be done due to Covid-19. The emergence of this pandemic is a disaster of its own for employment and income, especially for freelancers, temporary workers, day laborers and people without savings during the pandemic.
In the midst of pandemic, people continue to look for ways to survive and be healthy. Most people have to do it through self-quarantine. In order to reduce the spread and flatten the curve of Covid-19, self-quarantine becomes mandatory for those who are able to do it, by considering all aspects such as the adequacy of finance without work (savings), shelter, and basic facilities for daily necessities. Many things have to be done from inside of the ‘home’, be it a house or a small boarding room. Self-quarantine becomes a space to be tactical on a lot of things, including food and cooking.
Aside from being a strategy to break the chain of Covid-19, self-quarantine also encourages us to rethink our privileges. We all are indeed vulnerable, but this situation makes us no longer think about our own vulnerabilities but also vulnerabilities that are being experienced by others. We also become aware of life that would not have been possible without other people. The loss of the work of some people also shows how the wheel of capitalism is slowing down. In the midst of situations that require people to sojourn, capitalism which is rooted in mobility is standing on the verge of its destruction. One of capitalism’s goods that is most affected by this difficult situation is the price of food that slowly rises along with the stocks that are running low. As a result, it is not uncommon for us to come up with a strategy to fulfill the needs of our rumbling stomach.
In the midst of a pandemic, Foodemic is an effort to create a little space to share survival strategies through stories and recipes that come from the experience of self-quarantine. We invite everyone to share their recipes that were created during the crisis. There is no need for a perfect recipe, for we believe that how the recipe is able to be served during the hard time is what makes it worth sharing. Information on where to get cheap ingredients, how to process food without special expertise and limited equipment, information on ingredients that can substitute for other materials that are more economical amid soaring prices, up to information on food technology to extend the life cycle of food are highly welcomed. All in all, this collection of recipes will be a source of shared knowledge that we can access at any time.