The inventive way isolating students are getting a good meal
Students struggling to get their favourite food while self-isolating in halls of residence have come up with an ingenious way to get a food delivery to the door while it’s still hot. Eliza Talman, a first-year music student in halls in London, has pulled hot food, wine and even a trumpet mute through the window of her 5th-floor room using a DIY hauling system. When her flatmate tested positive for Covid-19, Eliza and the other students in her corridor had to isolate alone in their rooms. After three days, those who tested negative were allowed into the common kitchen and hallway, but still not permitted to go elsewhere. “Quarantining with a corridor of people makes it tricky to practice the trumpet”, she says. Student Eliza Talman It started with fish and chips There isn’t a reception in Eliza’s halls of residence, so to make sure hot food got to her quickly she came up with the novel way of accepting it. Turning isolation into an entertaining evening, she filmed the delivery of fish and chips via a strong rope – a gift from her aunt – the end of which she cleaned with an antiseptic wipe (for more information on disinfecting see here ). “My window is really well positioned”, she says. “I can see the road from it and wave to my family, which is a bit sad, but it’s where we got the idea for the pulley rope from. Getting the fish and chips was a surprise. I’d asked my mum for a few little bits, like a trumpet mute, but she brought fish and chips too!” Eliza’s mum put the goods in a bag and attached it to the rope while wearing gloves. Student Eliza Talman Eliza at the window she hauled her fish and chips through. And progressed to other food The window only opens a little, but Eliza and her flatmates have been experimenting with other foods they can squeeze through. They used the same system for a wine* delivery. “It was a bit awkward to write delivery instructions”, she says. “Another friend, who lives directly two flats below me, bought some cheese at a farmers’ market, which got brought up to my room [in the same way]”. The pulley system has allowed her to give gifts too. “The friend who bought me the cheese also needed to quarantine recently, so I sent him a cushion.” Eliza at the window she hauled her fish and chips through. It works with pizza too (apparently!) Eliza’s not the only student to use a pulley system. A group of isolating Newcastle students are reported to have created a pulley using dressing gown cords and a shopping bag to collect a pizza from a delivery driver*. They say it took them just three minutes to devise the idea and lower the bag using the cords once the pizza arrived. *We would like to make it clear we 100 percent do not recommend lifting wine, hot food or heavy items using a homemade pulley system! What about just ordering online? While getting a hot-takeaway can be the ultimate comfort, most of the time you will be prepping your own food, so what happens when you can’t get an online food delivery slot and aren’t allowed to pop to the shops? One student’s father took matters into his own hands and arranged a delivery from an online retailer that sells food as well as other objects, but it wasn’t as straightforward as it seemed. As the delivery didn’t come from a supermarket, everything came in boxes. The Newcastle student Hebe Foulsham, who tested positive for Covid-19 along with most of her flatmates within three days of arriving at halls, says of the boxes, “Every time one arrived I’d need to call the reception to say it was food or medicine and only then would they deliver it”, adding that is was difficult having to do that repeatedly whilst “bed bound”. Student Hebe Foulsham with some of her flatmates.