Dear Whole Earth Customers,
We extend a warm THANK YOU to our community and to our staff who have really stepped up in this chaotic moment and ever-evolving situation.
We appreciate your patience and understanding while we work to get our customers checked out, incoming shipments processed, shelves stocked, and our store continuously cleaned.
In order to give our team a rest and to get the store re-stocked, we are changing our hours.
Beginning Sunday, March 22, our hours will be:
Monday to Saturday: 8AM to 6PM (8AM to 9AM is reserved for seniors only)
Sunday: 9AM to 6PM (9AM to 10AM is reserved for seniors only)
We are limiting the number of shoppers in the store to 50 customers at a time.
Please send only 1 person from your family to shop so that we can serve the largest number of households. And we appreciate your patience as the wait time may be longer.
If you bring your own bags to shop, we will ask that you bag your own groceries. This will help to limit the amount of contact that our employees have with personal items that shoppers bring from home.
Please do not come to the store if you have a cough, fever, shortness of breath, body aches, or ANY other flu-like symptoms.
Self Care and Whole Earth’s Precautions in Response to Coronavirus
In response to coronavirus (COVID-19), we are taking extra precautions to help protect the health of our customers, employees, and community. As a grocer, we are also dedicated to helping our community cope with the disruptions caused by COVID-19.
Our employees are on the front lines of feeding our community and ensuring access to responsibly raised, whole, nutritious foods. In that role, Whole Earth Center has been handling large daily deliveries of product in order to keep our shelves as fully stocked as possible. So, please forgive any out of stocks and the extra boxes stacked in the aisles waiting to be placed on our shelves.
And please know that we are constantly monitoring our employees' health and stress levels in an effort to keep them (and you) safe, well, and in balance—because COVID-19 has given us a vivid reminder that we all need to come together to support each other's health and well being.
Precautions Whole Earth Center is Taking
We are making every effort possible to keep disinfectant wipes available at the front door for wiping off shopping cart and shopping basket handles.
Cashiers have disinfectant wipes at the registers to frequently wipe anything that may be touched by our shoppers.
We have suspended our in-store food sampling and have removed product samples from our Beauty and Wellness department.
Be assured that all of our deli cooks are trained in proper safe food handling. And our deli servers are wearing disposable gloves, which they are changing often. If you’d like to sample something in the deli, just ask one of our employees and they’ll be happy to give you a sample (on a compostable tasting spoon) of whatever you’d like to try.
Much as we love it when our customers bring their own coffee mugs and containers from home, we have temporarily suspended the use of refillable containers.
We are requiring all customers to use disposable gloves when using our non-gravity-fed bulk bins. Those gloves are available, free of charge, in our bulk department.
Our employees will continue to frequently wash their hands with soap and water, as per the CDC's instructions for proper hand washing.
We've increased the frequency with which we disinfect our café tables and other frequently touched areas of the store, as well as our stock room and prep areas.
Staff who exhibit any symptoms (fever, cough, shortness of breath) are not permitted to come to work unless they are medically cleared.
Our store is busiest at mid-day, around 6PM, and on Saturdays. We encourage our customers to shop during our off-peak hours. We've also instructed our employees to maintain a safe distance from customers, as much as possible.
We are postponing all in-store events, including our 50th Earth Day Birthday celebration, until further notice.
We are temporarily changing our return policy. To protect public health, all sales are final. We will not be accepting any returns.
Natural Strategies to Boost your Immune System
Exercise, stress relief, sufficient sleep, and a balanced diet are all effective ways to boost your immune system:
Exercise: Regular exercise mobilizes T cells, a type of white blood cell which guards the body against infection. However, continuous rigorous workouts can actually weaken the immune system, so moderation is key.
Sleep: A solid 7 to 8 hours is needed to avoid reducing the activities of T cells in your body.
Less Stress: Stress can release the hormone cortisol, which negatively affects T cell reproduction. Try yoga, meditation, or deep breathing each day to reduce your stress levels. And practice self care by finding an information source you trust, such as the CDC and your local health department. After getting updates, consider unplugging from the news and social media regularly to lower your stress level.
Moderate Alcohol Intake: While moderate consumption of alcohol can positively affect overall health, excess intake can negatively affect the immune system.
Stop Smoking: Smoking impairs the immune system, and you have a significantly higher chance of being seriously affected by virus infections.
Maintain a Healthy Diet: Vegetables, fruits, seeds, and nuts are loaded with nutrients essential to immune health. A diet rich in colorful food typically will be higher in valuable vitamins. These foods all can help strengthen your immune system:
Citrus
Red Bell Peppers
Broccoli
Garlic
Ginger
Spinach
Yogurt
Almonds
Turmeric
Green Tea
Papaya
Kiwi
Poultry
Sunflower Seeds
Herbs, Vitamins and Supplements: While the hope is you can get many needed nutrients from your diet, supplementing can help improve your immune system. Here are just a few things you may want to include in your daily regime:
Echinacea, Elderberry, and Zinc
Vitamins A, B6, C, D, and E all help strengthen your immune system, and especially vitamin C, which you can get from citrus fruits, spinach, and strawberries. And consider getting outside on sunny days to help your body produce more vitamin D.
Mushrooms and mushroom supplements are rich in essential nutrients and very good for your immune system.
We all hope that the spread of COVID-19 is curtailed as soon as possible. In the meantime, we are here to help as you reduce stress, improve your diet, and strengthen the ever-important immune system—all of which are good practices regardless of what season we are in.
See you in the aisles,
Whole Earth Center Staff