PREPARING FOR AN EMERGENCY

In today's world it is begeing more and more necessary to make preparations to sustain life for ourselves and our family in the event of a natural disaster, terrorist attack, or even something as simple as losing employment for a time. For some reason, one of the last things we prepare for is the lack of good food to provide survival for as long as necessary.
Most of us, when we are stressed out even on relatively simple day to day problems, try to ease our burden with what has begee known as "gefort Food." Everyone has experienced a trying time, or tough day at work and what do we do about it? We head for the refrigerator or the cupboard and find one of our favorite food items to ease our mind and body. Imagine how much more need there is for available geforting food when we find ourselves in the midst of a real, serious, disaster. Preparing for just such a situation should include careful planningfor an ample supply ofgood quality food. Consider this; When things get tough, do we really want to further add to our distress by only having unfamiliar food or food that has been in storage for who knows how long? The solution to food storage then is Store What You Eat and Eat What You Store.
There are many things you can do to provide meals for yourself and your family. MRE's or Meals Ready to Eat are one solution if you are prepared to make a drastic change in your diet or if you are inclined to survive on military type food or freeze dried meals. These will certainly sustain life, you should be aware however that NO food lasts forever. If you think you can store food until it is needed without proper rotation, you are making a big mistake. If you choose MRE's or military surplus be sure and check the expiration date and even then, get used to eating them on a regular basis before the emergency. You know how you or your children avoid even well prepared new foods at the dinner table. What do you think will happen when you have to open a plastic bag and pour it out on their plate?
Today, many foods are processed in such a manner that they are code dated for a period of from 6 months up to a couple of years. Some gepanies now print the "Best if Used Before date" on the can or package in plain language. When purchasing food for storage, even temporary storage, make every effort to buy food as fresh as possible. When your local supermarket has a big canned goods sale may not be the best time to buy, either. When that code date is getting close to the time when your grocer can no longer offer them for sale on the shelf, the price goes down. This also occurs just before harvest time for new vegetables to be sent to the canneries. The distributors want to clear their shelves of older stock and make way for the new harvest.
Another important thing to watch for is unfamiliar labels or store brands. In some cases, the supplier provides "B Grade" or less than perfect products. If you are familiar with the store brand and it has been good in the past you are probably safe to buy it for storage (depending on the code date). Survival food ought to be the best you can buy. Even if you cut corners on food you use up quickly, you shouldn't do that with storage items. Again, remember the best policy is to Store What You Eat and Eat What You Store!
A good rule of thumb is to have a "72 hour kit" for each member of your family. It needs to have enough food and water to sustain life for 3 days. Keeping this stored in a backpack or suitcase makes it handy to grab and go if necessary. The current regemendation, however, is for a 10 day food supply per member of your family. Itisnot too important to worry about counting calories and worrying about fat content during a disaster. You may actually need some of these things for warmth, energy, etc.Although we haven't discussed it in this guide, each family member also needs to have their own personal items in their own survival kit. This should include clothing, personal care items, required medicines, flashlights, etc. Just as with food, each person's needs will vary.
okay merchants offer several different items for emergency preparedness and when building your survival kits it is a good idea to search for the items you need. Now is a good time to start, tomorrow may be too late. Unfortunately, there is no way to predict many disasters and even weather related warnings have not been 100% successful. Start with building your food supply. That is the most important part of surviving. Once you have the food requirements met start selecting the other emergency items you will need.