Food Emergency

Why is our food supply of paramount worry when wondering how we’ll keep our family or ourselves going? So many of us live in developed countries with stores full of food, yet we know they would easily be depleted of essentials if an emergency hit us. Many people can’t make it to the stores during power outages, blizzard conditions and other natural disasters. For a lot of people, the terrorist threats we hear about keep the anxiety levels rising and falling weekly. Even the recent volcano eruptions have limited people in their ability to access transportation. Some people won’t have the access to money or cash when needed. They may live far away from towns and can’t get into the populated areas to buy food. Some people may need to leave town and head to their cottage or another family’s home.

We can spend a lot of time organizing and planning long-term food supplies, storage and ensure we eat what is getting close to its expiry date. Some people have done this and are certainly to be praised for their advanced planning efforts. I cannot discourage them in that. There are many of us who simply cannot or do not have the time or even inclination to do that, and yet we have a nagging worry in the back of our mind of how pathetically ill-prepared we are for a food emergency or any form of disaster preparedness.

What I’ve found is a lot of food available that is prepared for much longer storage life such as 5 to 10 years, even up to 25 years.

There are  containers of freeze dried meals that last from 20 to 30 years, so once you have bought these, you will have taken care of your food worries. You can start stocking up on them bit by bit until you have the variety of different meals you would want with you. One can has nine servings and indicate that it is lactose free, shellfish free, pork free, etc. Prior to ordering them, you will be able to see the nutrition facts, the ingredients, and how many servings it will provide.

Freeze dried food seals in the nutrients and are preferred over dehydrated foods. They keep the taste, texture and shape, they keep the nutrition, vitamins, fibre, color of fresh frozen foods. Some examples of the meals you may buy: vegetable stew with beef, chicken and rice, spaghetti and meat sauce, chicken a la king, beef stroganoff, vegetarian meals, beef or chicken teriyaki, lasagna with meat sauce, sea food chowder, incredible assortment of desserts, individual cans of specific side dishes such as fluffy white rice, sweet corn, green beans, – the list goes on and on. So you can see that you don’t have to be eating monotonous beans and canned soup nor do you have to worry about the expiration date. One man wrote that the snack crackers he tried after 25 years of storage were delicious.  There are also single and two-pack pouches of freeze dried food for travel, hiking, camping, etc. Best sellers are Beef Stroganoff, Lasagna/Meat Sauce, Beef Stew, Chicken Teriyaki, Eggs/Bacon.

MRE’s – these food packages are what miltary personnel carry with them. For those of you unfamiliar with MRE’s, they are individual pouches of food ready to slip into an MRE heater. The heater is also a slim disposable holder that requires only one tablespoon of water to heat the MRE that you slip into it. The MRE will provide nutritious meals that are more tasty hot than cold, which is why you want the MRE heater with you. At about .99 for the heater, you can see what I’m talking about – the heater is not a piece of bulky equipment. A lot of us have never heard of MRE’s nor the MRE heater, so I’m explaining in detail.  The difference in the years of shelf-life for MREs is a result of the temperature you store them in. They keep best in 75 degrees farenheit or less and will last much longer than five years at those temperatures, but about 5 years in hotter climates or storage. You can see why these are so valuable to the military.

You can buy a box of MRE’s for a 30 day supply, which will provide one person 2000 calories per day of meals. That supply also includes 30 MRE heaters to go with it.  I’m so impressed with these, they take the guess work out of long-term food supplies, they eliminate the need for power or drinkable water to heat up the food, they are lightweight but full of excellent food, and they last for years. How fantastic is that. You can carry them with you on hiking or wilderness expeditions, if for no other reason than ensuring you are not wtihout food if you are lost or stuck in bad weather. You can keep a box in your home for easy emergency evacuation.

Mountain House Freeze-Dried Food