Thread by @Dr_D_Robertson

Stewart Rose on BBC Radio 4: “There is no shortage of food. Nobody will starve. There is a £1bn more food in people’s larders than there was a couple of weeks ago. What are they doing with it? How much do you need to eat? How much do you need to store away?”

So, saying there is £1 billion more food in than before - what _are_ people doing with it?
theguardian.com/world/2020/mar…

Well...

There are 20 million households in the UK. So, £1 billion divided by 20 million households is £50 per household. Which seems a lot of unnecessary stockpiling. Yes, there is some of that going on, but...

One of the drivers of this is that all the lunches that were cooked by schools and employers those weeks ago are now being cooked at home. There are 60 million people in the UK, so with 20 million households, that's 3 people per household.

So, assuming 5 extra meals per day, that's 5 x 3 meals. Or 15 extra meals being cooked at home. Which is just over £3 per meal, which is expensive for a home-made sandwich, but you need to buy a block of cheese to make that sandwich.

Suddenly, that £1 billion of extra food in peoples houses doesn't seem so silly after all. #panickbuying #panicbuying . But hopefully things should calm down very soon #ORMS