In June of 2006 we spent an evening at church with friends putting together 72 hour emergency food kits; something we are encouraged to keep… and something I find hard to keep up with. These food kits were sealed in Mylar pouches (below left) and they were supposed to be good for 5 years. At the time we had just three kids and after adding two more children to the family by 2009 and letting six years slip by it was high time to go through to update these kits to better prepare our family for possible emergencies.
Above left is a Mylar pouch stuffed with three days worth of food for one person and one by one I cut these open and dumped the contents into a laundry basket.
And here is a basket of food for five people. Boy were my kids surprised when I told them to go and pick their dinner out of the basket!!! There was a real mix of emotions. Some of my kids were pretty worried about eating food that was “so old”. Others didn’t really care because it just seemed fun and free. In the meantime I’d read somewhere in recent months something about being careful how dried meats and nuts are stored and not to use oxygen absorbers with them. Between reading that and my kids worries I admit I began to feel worried about eating it myself and vowed that we would just toss anything with nuts as well as the Slim Jims. Next thing I knew my son was coming up the stairs with a slim jim hanging out of his mouth exclaiming over its deliciousness and I grabbed it out of his mouth quick hoping he wouldn’t die from the experience! Well, he didn’t even get sick and we all survived eating “old” spagetti-O’s and raisins. It was a dining adventure for sure.
So the other part of this task was to put together fresh packages of food, for seven this time around. Rick and I headed to the store to buy things we absolutely never ever buy; prepackaged and individually packaged foods. Normally I purchase things in large quantities and when I send my family out with their packed lunches for school and work we use re-usable containers for individual servings of yogurt spooned from a huge container as well as pretzels, salads and beverages. So to barely fill my cart with food for my family for just 3 days I am really not used to the bill adding up so fast. This was a major purchase of convenience food that we decided was worth the cost in this instance, at least. To give you an idea of the cost of prepackaged foods, Rick and I once looked at “Lunchables” which were on sale. In these conveniently packaged foods were two Oreos. We figured out that with Oreos in these packages at that price it would be like paying $18 for a single package of Oreos and thinking that was a great deal! Just an example of the price difference.
So for a fresh supply of three days worth of food for seven people we packed food in Ziplocs this time and placed the food and other necessarily supplies into clean empty cat litter buckets with handles and everyone wrote their names on the side. These containers are the perfect size and plastic is necessary for storing in our damp basement. Plus a sealed plastic lid helps keep out bugs; specifically spiders which we tend to have a lot of around here. And Sandy poses next to the water bottles we store (and yes, the cats have their necessities stored in this location as well so we can grab and go with them as well). All of our 72 hour emergency supplies are stored in a single area in our basement along with a list of other things to grab if there is time.
So for each persons food kit we store the following:
12 bottles of water (total of 64 oz. per day)
15 pieces of candy, 2 packages of cookies, 2 slim jim sticks, 1 ready to eat Tomato Soup, 1 container of pasta & sauce, 1 container of chicken and rice with vegies, 2 mini cans fruit, 2 1oz. boxes of raisins, 2 packs of fruit snacks, 2 packs of peanuts, 4 granola/power bars, 3 hot chocolate pouches, 3 oatmeal packets, plastic silverware.
We’ve seen many disasters, even local, where people were suddenly displaced from their homes and having this kit would have made things easier for them. For example there was a chemical leak several years ago in one of the rail yards nearby and a whole urban area was evacuated. Hopefully we will never need to grab these emergency kits and go ourselves, but we feel peace knowing that we are more prepared to take care of our family in the event of an emergency.
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