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Thread: Best food emergency planning

  1. #51
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    Quote Originally Posted by UltraliteAngler View Post
    This has been an incredibly interesting thread to read! Good info and insights all around.

    As an "extreme" minimalist I often wonder: "Do I have enough food and water to make it through an emergency?" and "Is my stoic knack for doing without (or very little) enough for disaster preparedness?"

    I have maybe a dozen 12 ounce bottles of water on hand, a few frozen items, a few canned items, and a bit of dried items too. But it is all rather haphazard. I have no system for food and water in a disaster scenario. When I lived in AZ I stockpiled a sh*t-ton of water though! It was an entire closet's worth. Living in the desert just freaked me out. Now I live in rainy Ohio with lakes all over. So I don't worry... perhaps I ought to..

    I'm about like you. No system. I don't even have a system for daily non emergency. I'm not a very systematic person. For one things, systems seems to frustrate and confuse me. At a glance, I'd say, that what I have would get myself and perhaps two others by for a week if we were very careful.

  2. #52
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    Quote Originally Posted by thunderseed View Post
    Why can't you get to the store? That is a scenario you should probably think about. If you can't get to the store, then you obviously must be pretty injured which means you have bigger problems than just getting something to eat, you also won't be able to go out into your garden or the forest or go fishing, and you'll have to ration out the food you do have currently in your kitchen, or drag yourself to your neighbours house and hopefully they can spare you some bread or something (and help you with your injury). You aren't going to starve to death in 5 days... But if you can't get to the store just because you think it won't be open, you are probably wrong. Most grocery stores are going to be open because they want to get rid of all the perishables as soon as possible, and most grocery stores have generators.

    IMHO the only thing you should NEVER be minimal about is first aid supplies. I might be biased since I'm a first aider, but I've made that mistake before. I like to test my survival, you see, by going on crazy wilderness expeditions with barely anything, and all it took one day was me accidentally falling on a barnacle and cutting my foot. It was a tiny cut, and within a couple of days the infection was so bad I could have died out there. I didn't have enough first aid supplies. I had to kayak many miles to get to get back to civilization just to get antibiotics because I didn't have the right tools to keep a tiny injury clean. When it comes to bare survival it is so easy to die. One tiny thing and you'll be dead so it's important to be super prepared. I have a huge first aid kit and supplies in my house.

    I don't like stocking up on a bunch of canned goods for disasters, because it all goes to waste once it hits the expiration date. I don't keep more food than I need in my kitchen, otherwise it just gets wasted.
    Besides I don't even eat canned foods because they aren't healthy, and I'm not going to start eating canned and processed foods just because a disaster comes.

    What you have to do personally, is look at what kind of disasters could happen in your area. There are some disasters that may prevent you from obtaining food, so stocking up on food may be critical. Then think about what kinds of risks and scenarios could be presented with these disasters.
    But generally in my area, the only things we really have to worry about are floods, storms, forest fires and earthquakes, in fact we are expecting a really big earthquake any time. For all of those scenarios, obtaining food isn't going to be a problem.

    In most cases, you'll find that you can still get to a grocery store (if you haven't been seriously injured) and that the grocery store will have generators on if power has gone out, and they will be urgently trying to sell all the perishables. We have had big storms here that caused massive black outs for days and the local grocery stores gave us really good deals on all the frozen and perishable foods so that they could clear them out as soon as possible.

    That's exactly what I do when disasters hit. I just go down to the grocery store and stock up on plenty of fresh food to last me for about a week or so.
    A lot of people don't do this because they don't realize that most things don't have to be refridgerated, and even the things that do, can easily be kept outside in protected containers or somewhere that is cool.
    You don't have to live on dry goods and canned foods, you can still eat healthy perishables. You don't need a freezer or a fridge! Of course you will want to eat up all the things in your freezer before anything else.

    For example, even something like milk doesn't have to be refridgerated. I manged to keep a container of milk for 2 whole weeks on a solo camping trip by simply resting it in a bucket of cool water in shady place outside.
    During state of emergencies, you don't want to be eating crappy food, because you'll be stressed out and your health could be affected in more than one way, it's important to get healthy, fresh food, not just dry processed stuff and canned goods.

    Recently we had over hundreds of forest fires nearby, the smoke haze here was thick for a long time, people were getting really sick and I felt it in my lungs right away. I was very quick to act, I went to buy a mask as well as an air filter and stocked up on a lot of healthy food as well as a supplement for the lungs, made sure to drink lots of water and basically stayed inside the whole time in a small room that was being filtered. It was so hot that I had to cool down with a cold cloth, because there was no going outside to cool off that's for sure. Honestly, I've been prepared all of my life for disasters but this was one thing I had not thought of or prepared for and it was terrifying. Thank goodness I remembered the haze that happened in Singapore, I rememeber talking to some guy while it happened there and people were actually dying there, it got so bad, but I looked up tips on how people survived it, and that's how I learned what to do. There is nothing worse than not being able to find fresh air anywhere to breathe, it was suffocating and aweful like breathing in thick particles of ash, needless to say I also had to supplement with natural anxiety reducing chewables. I pray to god that it never happens again. I've always loved earth disasters, I'm really excited for earthquakes, tornadoes and all storms, but constant smoke inhalation is not something I would ever want to endure again.

    For any disaster, it is advised to get enough supplies for about 3 days, because that is the time when emergency personell won't be available for. But I usually just stock up for a week, as soon as the disaster hits, I just get to the grocery store and get any other things I might need. In most cases, grocery stores are going to be open because they won't want to let all the food go bad and they will take the opportunity to make some sales. It was downright apocalyptic last time it happened, they had some generators on but most of the grocery store was pitch dark, there were sales people carrying around flashlights, and everyone had a lot of fun, it was pretty neat despite how much money they were losing.

    Also when push comes to shove, make sure you know about the wild edibles in your area, and know how to fish, gather shellfish and hunt. I live in the perfect place, surrounded by forests and oceans, so even if grocery stores do shut down, I would never go hungry.

    All you have to do to get water (if you don't have a good filtration device) is simply put it in a clear, plastic bottle and put it out in the sun, it will get disinfected... Water really isn't a big deal, especially if you have a good water filtration system. We've had floods here and had boil water advisaries, but I've never boiled the water, just put it through my awesome filter and it's good to go. And also, it's not hard to boil water either...

    I think the most common examples of "not being able to get to a store" would be Katrina. Nobody could get out. they had what they had. And no power or even capability to create a fire in an attic or a rooftop. Japan also. The people were very orderly, but they were lining up for hours for two bottles of water and a bag of rice and some yogurt if I remember. IF they could get to a supply station. In both scenarios, water and wild edibles were not easy to get to.

  3. #53
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tiam View Post
    I think the most common examples of "not being able to get to a store" would be Katrina. Nobody could get out. they had what they had. And no power or even capability to create a fire in an attic or a rooftop. Japan also. The people were very orderly, but they were lining up for hours for two bottles of water and a bag of rice and some yogurt if I remember. IF they could get to a supply station. In both scenarios, water and wild edibles were not easy to get to.
    Yeah, like I said it all depends on where you live and what the risks are. After any earthquake you should get to higher ground if there is a chance of tsunami, but depending where you live, you'll probably have grocery stores in areas that are out of tsunami range.

  4. #54
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tiam View Post
    I think the most common examples of "not being able to get to a store" would be Katrina. Nobody could get out. they had what they had. And no power or even capability to create a fire in an attic or a rooftop. Japan also. The people were very orderly, but they were lining up for hours for two bottles of water and a bag of rice and some yogurt if I remember. IF they could get to a supply station. In both scenarios, water and wild edibles were not easy to get to.
    Tiam-

    1. When people have home food storage they don't hoard the food they store, they rotate and use it. I literally “shop” at home first. My food budget ($125/month for two adults) is spent like this: 70-80% for restocking when I find it at rock-bottom prices, and 20-30% for fresh foods. Because I purchase food ahead of need, I can wait until it’s the lowest possible price – which is another way to stretch my food dollars. I can purchase in bulk and share the savings with our family/friends, as well as sharing through donations to the Food Bank. I donate at least 10% of our food, or food dollars, to the Food Bank. Wasted food, junk food, and over-eating are ways to break a food budget. In fact, they are the most expensive food we purchase; and home food storage helps me avoid that.

    If planned correctly, as Mary Wilde outlines in her book A Year’s Supply In “Seven Days”, her grocery list for her family of six consists of less than 50 individual items.

    The amount of basic food required for one person for a year, when purchased in #10 cans, will fit the space of a single bed, for anyone who thinks they don’t have enough space. Even if you manage to accumulate 3-6 months ahead of a variety of foods from all the food groups, you will be able to withstand a loss of income, unexpected medical expenses, a major appliance needs to be replaced and you need the grocery budget to afford the expense, because you won’t need food, and those dollars can go towards other essentials in hard times. We can exist on the “Seven Survival Foods” (grains, legumes, sprouting seeds, sweetener/s, salt, oil, and powdered milk), which can be very versatile foods when combined, flavored, seasoned, modified, and even disguised, to create delicious meals.

    2. MILK - I haven't purchased liquid milk from the store since 1981; and we purchase enough powdered milk products to last a year. Why? Because it's much cheaper to purchase by-the-bucket than powdered milk you get from the grocery store, and it’s less expensive per gallon reconstituted with water when compared to liquid milk from the grocery store. There are also better-tasting products than you find at the store.

    Regular liquid milk for a two-week camping trip? There are great powdered milk products available. They are lightweight and easy to make by-the-serving, or by-the-quart or gallon. Not to mention all the homemade “convenience” foods I make using powdered milk – soup mixes, pancake/waffle mix, Magic Mix, condensed Cream of _____ soup substitute, cocoa mix, basic white sauce mix, biscuit mix, cheese sauce mix, muffin mix, cookie mix, cake mix, bread mix, and the list goes on and on…. I can also make cheese, yogurt and kefir using powdered milk. I use powdered milk, hot water and white vinegar to make “cheeseburgers”, which are actually curds I form into a patty. The curds from this mixture can be flavored and used as meatless patties, or breaded meatless “Chicken-like” Tenders.

    3. In 2008, during the economic downturn, the company my husband worked for went from two shifts to one and reduced the manufacturing line employees by 50%. I have always been good at buying ahead to save money, but that's when I got serious and focused about home food storage. It was a safeguard against the potential for loss of income. As it turned out, he never was unemployed, but received 3 major pay reductions, and has remained at that lower amount due to the economics of the business. Therefore, I purchase as much food as I can with the limited food budget I have. It is paramount to the whole budget. I knew if we had enough food for a year, we could divert money towards other essentials in an emergency. We were also able to give food we had in storage to a number of the employees who had families and had a difficult time finding employment.

    4. Our 72-hour emergency kit has been put to use during a couple ice storms and a post-tornado event when power was out for extended periods of time. It includes foods that do NOT require heating or refrigerating, therefore I wouldn’t need to be stuck in the attic during Katrina trying to heat food (although we have that capability in the kit as well, whether it would have been for heating food, pasteurizing drinking water, or heat from the cold temperatures). It’s all in a grab-and-go Bug-Out bag, and also a couple plastic tubs we can quickly place in our vehicle/s.

    Our granddaughter lives away at college (in a dorm) where there was a railroad chemical spill this summer. Part of the town was evacuated. She grabbed her Bug-Out Bag in case she needed the N95 Respirator for breathing, making sure she had sufficient water (filling every empty container she owned) should they need to shelter-in-place and the drinking water would be contaminated somehow. She also has a LifeStraw for safe drinking water. This was a man-made disaster that can happen in any town, at any time.

    5. It is a well-documented fact that there is approximately 3-days worth of food at any supermarket. All you have to do is walk through a Super Wal-Mart at 6 a.m. Sunday morning and realize how much food was purchased on Saturday, or check any store just hours before a winter storm event to realize how quickly shelves are cleared of stock.

    In an article I read several years ago, “The U.K. is only 3 missed meals away from total anarchy.” As of 3-18-2010 the U.K. has 3 days of food available, approximately 7 days of fuel, no large amounts of medical kits, about 50-hours of natural gas. There are many small towns out here in the middle of Kansas where that is true today. Many small towns don’t have a local grocer at ALL! Families travel a couple hundred miles to do their monthly grocery shopping here at Aldi. One major snow/ice event and you’ll find all your town’s food sitting at a truck stop near an Interstate Highway waiting for the highway to open to traffic again. This is one cause of an interrupted food supply. Truckers went on strike when fuel prices skyrocketed several years ago, and some or our local stores had food shortages and outages due to striking truckers. One winter snow/ice event left people unable to get out of their homes for 4-6-weeks in some places a few years ago. You really don’t realize how fragile our food supply is if you only rely on your local store.

    6. Long before we depended on our local grocery stores, statistics from pre-WWII, families preserved much of the food they grew and were self-reliant since the largest percentage of the population were in the agriculture areas, not urban dwellers. Today that is reverse, families don’t have much reason, or much practice, at self-sufficient living. Which looming disaster will it take to make it clear the practical benefits of being more self-sufficient?

  5. #55
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    I'm curious, Lessibest, why you directed the above post to me? I was simply replying to Thunderseed about stores. We've had this conversation before. I don't eat much processed canned foods, so the whole storage thing becomes a bit moot. What I do have, some beans, tomatoes, and condiments I rotate. My legumes and rice are rotated as used. I do not bake. I don't drink milk. So, in terms of Thunderseed, I was only pointing out what kind of emergency might make going to the store out of the question. People used to preserve because it was the only way to make it through winter and because to eat they mostly had to eat what they grew, and had to preserve that same food. Things aren't like that anymore. People live in condos, and apartments. They go to stores.

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