For years, I have heard about food storage and emergency preparedness, whether it is for the eventual end of days, global pandemics or the looming “big one” earthquake to strike the Salt Lake Valley. So many are prepared that even my house has rows of shelving in the basement for emergency supplies.

The COVID-19 virus seems to be a pretty mild test so far, but by all accounts I must say we’ve failed based on the number of runs on our grocery stores. Now I’m not a survivor-at-all-costs type, so my self-preparedness to survive two weeks is pretty dismal, particularly without tap water (the shelves in my basement store are filled with electronic parts and gizmos, nothing edible) — so I went in to my local Smith’s preparing to host that night’s poker night with friends, which is about the extent of my forward planning, only to find I can’t make chili because all the hamburger in two Smith’s stores is gone. Canned beans are a rarity. (I did find an organic variety, so apparently preparedness must be done on the cheap.) And I didn’t even try for bottled water, hand sanitizer and toilet paper I recently bought before the craze.