Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Storing Food in a Disaster Supply Kit

Provident Principles and Practices
© David Edwards, 2009


PRINCIPLES: On page 7 of Essentials of Home Production and Storage, published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1978, it says that every individual or family ought to have on hand a container that can easily be moved holding foods requiring no refrigeration or cooking.

Likewise, the American Red Cross suggests storing in a disaster supply kit a three days worth of foods that can be stored without refrigeration and eaten without preparation or cooking. Foods should not be very large or heavy. (See American Red Cross, Charter Oak Chapter Web site, 2009).

PRACTICES: Essentials of Home Production and Storage recommends storing such items as tuna fish, pork and beans, nonfat dry milk, dried apricots, canned orange juice or tomato juice, and peanut butter. The American Red Cross recommends similar items and also adds soup, sugar, salt, pepper, jelly, crackers, granola bars, vitamins, food for infants, food for elderly people, food for people on special diets, and foods to alleviate discomfort or stress.

Need for food. Most adults can survive up to several weeks without food. However, a prolonged lack of food can severely diminish energy levels, judgment, strength, endurance, mental alertness, ability to regulate internal body temperature, and contentment. All of these may be important for your survival in an adverse emergency situation requiring evacuation.

Storage. Store foods having a relatively long shelf-life. Avoid foods that may only last days, weeks or a few months. Put an approximate expiration date on a food’s packaging if it is not already present. Check foods in your kit twice a year, such as around General Conference time, and rotate out foods about to expire. Keep kit foods at temperatures above freezing and below 82 degrees, but preferably cooler. Keep foods in secure, airtight containers to protect them against pests and oxidation.

Specific Foods for Consideration. Two 40-oz containers of commercial peanut butter, with a shelf life of two years, contain about 500 g of protein, 1,100 g of fat, 500 g of carbohydrate, and 13,000 calories. With this alone, a person could get almost 2,200 cal/day for 6 days. US Coast Guard approved survival bars, with 5-yr shelf lives, come in 2,400 and 3,600 calorie sizes, and they are compact and modestly priced. Flavors include apple cinnamon, dutch apple, and lemon. Most canned meats and fish can be eaten directly from the can without cooking. Dehydrated and freeze-dried foods are lighter to carry than other foods, but they require water and time to rehydrate. Do not eat them without first rehydrating them. Some people also like MREs (meals ready to eat). Natural dry foods, such as raw almonds, can be stored in freezer bags.

Special Needs. In your disaster supply kits, you want to account for special dietary requirements for each member of your family. Consider allergies and food preferences. Don’t forget baby needs, such as formula, if needed. If you have a pet that will be going with you, you may also wish to include pet food. You most likely will also want to include a can opener and utensils in your kit.

More: http://charteroak.redcross.org/media/Your_Family_Disaster_Supplies_Kit.pdf

Photo Credits:

Apricots: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/people/journals/space/kloeris/apricots.jpg/

Exhausted people after a disaster: http://photos.state.gov/libraries/amgov/3234/week_2/081108_exhaustion_200.jpg

Tuna fish: www.noaaworld.noaa.gov/scitech/images/jun2008_scitech_3_2.jpg

Baby formula: http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/spinoff1996/images/75.jpg

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Disaster Supply Kits – Emergency Storage

Provident Principles and Practices
© David Edwards, 2009

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PRINCIPLE: “Each family or individual should have portable container(s) with emergency supplies such as the following: water; food requiring no refrigeration or cooking (graham crackers, canned fruits, canned meats); medications and critical medical histories required by family members; change of clothing, including two pairs of stockings; sanitary supplies; first aid booklet and equipment (see pages 7-8); candles; matches; ax; shovel; can opener; and blanket. The container should be placed where it can be picked up at a moment’s notice. Nearby for easy access should be a packet containing the most valuable of the family’s personal documents, such as genealogical records.” – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Essentials of Home Production and Storage, 1978, p. 7.
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On the providentliving.org Web site, a question is asked in a Q&A section about 72-hour kits, a name often used by Church members to describe what FEMA and the American Red Cross now generally refer to as disaster supply kits. The Church suggests that members get ready for difficult circumstances by first acquiring a basic supply of water, food and money. To that, long-term storage items can be added. The Church indicates that, beyond these things, members may wish to put additional items into storage that may have value to them in a crisis.
http://www.providentliving.org/content/display/0,11666,7636-1-4104-1,00.html#question_10

PRACTICES: You never know when you might need to suddenly leave your home or workplace and take with you only what can be picked up at a moment’s notice. The cause could be any of a number of events: a building fire, a civil disturbance, terrorism, or disaster. Taking needed supplies with you in a disaster supply kit may be vital to your survival both during and after a disaster. What should you store and take with you in your kit? It depends on your needs. Most kit contents are similar to what you would take on a camping trip. However, a number of items in a disaster supply kit are unique. You can make these kits not only for the home, but also for the office and/or the car.

Essential Supplies and Documents. Although changes in foods, lighting, tools and electronics have taken place over the past 30 years since the Church first suggested to us the use of these kits, the basic practices remain the same: store in a portable container vital supplies and documents that can help you or your family survive a disaster and recover quickly from it.

Containers. What kind of containers can you use for a disaster supply kit? Some people like backpacks, which can be worn on the back. Others like wheeled duffle bags. Containers should be large enough to carry your essential emergency supplies yet light enough, when fully packed, to be lifted and/or carried. You may end up putting your disaster supply kit in a car, wheeling it down a street, or carrying it with you, depending on the situation and on your own strength and endurance. Ideally, containers should be durable, water-resistant, and convenient to carry, use, and repack.

Internal Organization. Some people like containers with built-in internal compartments, but clear plastic, heavy-duty, 1-gallon zip-locking freezer bags also work very well to organize your gear and create compartments for each category of essential supplies. You can also write the supply category name on each bag to make organization and future reference easy. For example, you might have a bag or two identified for each of the following: water, food, clothing, bedding, money, navigation, food preparation, fuel and light, personal supplies, sanitation, communications, health and first aid, tools and equipment, personal protection, infant needs, and critical documents. In upcoming Provident Principles and Practices newsletters, we will discuss each of these supply categories in greater detail and review the kinds of items in each category that may be particularly useful to you.

For more, see www.fema.gov/areyouready/assemble_disaster_supplies_kit.shtm

Photo credits:

Other images: D. or S. Edwards

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Cooking Oil

Provident Principles and Practices
© David Edwards, 2009


PRINCIPLES: The LDS Provident Living Web site suggests that we may wish to consider adding to our basic and extended food supplies some additional foods and food preparation items such as cooking oil.

While the brethren have not specified exactly what we need to store, they have recommended that we focus on vital foods supporting life. One of those that they mention is cooking oil. (See the First Presidency Letter to the Church, dated June 24, 1988.)

One of the most extensive discussions of cooking oil in Church literature is that of F. Enzio Busche, writing in the June 1982 issue of the Ensign. He felt that the most valuable food item in Germany during a time of starvation was cooking oil. It's value was great, with one quart being readily traded for other valuable commodities such as fruit or root vegetables in the hundreds of pounds. Cooking oil enhanced the flavor of items not even normally considered foods, such as wild leaves and roots.

In the LDS Church booklet called Essentials of Home Production & Storage, copyrighted in 1978, the authors recommend storing about 20 pounds of fat or oil per person per year.

PRACTICES: Some oil and/or fat is essential for health. Many people suggest storing about 10 quarts of cooking oil per person per year. That is approximately equivalent to the 20 lbs/person per year recommended in Essentials of Home Production and Storage. Purchase cooking oil fresh. Check expiration dates. Generally, it is best to store cooking oil in airtight containers.

Even in unopened bottles on the shelf, most healthful cooking oils tend to go rancid relatively quickly, within six to twelve months. Light, oxygen and heat are the main culprits. Keep oil in opaque bottles and/or out of light. If possible, store oil in glass or metal containers, impermeable to oxygen. Stored oil generally lasts longer in a refrigerator, and even longer in a freezer, perhaps as much as several years. Olive oil tends to freeze well and last quite a long time. After freezing, cooking oil may turn thicker and cloudy, but it becomes fluid and transparent upon warming to room temperature. Rotate cooking oils regularly, using older product first.

In an emergency, cooking oils can be used as a source of lamplight, with a twisted multistrand cotton-string wick or similar wick placed in the oil on a wire guide with a little bit of the wick remaining above the oil surface to allow the oil to wick up for burning. Olive oil burns cleanly.

For info on cooking-oil lamps, see www.judyofthewoods.net/lamp.html; www.instructables.com/id/Make-an-oil-burning-candle/; and www.thriftyfun.com/tf45633038.tip.html. For Church counsel on storage foods and amounts, see www.providentliving.org/content/display/0,11666,7498-1-4070-1,00.html.