Using Emergency Food in Everyday Circumstances
If you’re like me, you grew up with a mother who always lectured everyone at the dinner table to finish their food because it’s a sin to waste it.
As a kid, her words of wisdom didn’t mean much to me. I just wanted to eat fast and get back outside to play. As an adult, I’ve realized just how right she was. Food and water are precious resources, so why waste them?
When I started prepping for disasters – well before I developed Food4Patriots – I recognized how important expiration dates were. There’s no way I was going to put that much work into survival planning, only to be faced with a crisis and a basement full of expired survival food and water.
I developed a system to manage expiration dates for emergency food and water supplies. I used a small notebook to track food, water, batteries, light sticks, first aid supplies, etc.
I didn’t keep the log with my disaster supplies where I could easily forget about it. I kept it front and center on my office desk, so I didn’t forget it. I checked the log quarterly for upcoming expirations and planned accordingly to avoid waste.
If you are like I was – a DIY person who did not yet have survival food with a long shelf life stored, or if you’re someone who just wants to store additional items that don’t last quite as long – keep an eye on expiration dates.
One idea for food that is rapidly reaching its expiration date is to donate it to your local shelter. Make sure they are aware of the expiration dates. Otherwise, find a way to use it in your daily life. Here are a few that work for me:
Water
Water that you’ve stored is great for camping and even making coffee at home. We are all conserving water, so please try to use your water rations instead of pouring them out. If you believe your water has already been stored for a year or more, use it to water plants and flowers.
Food
I love taking my survival food on camping trips! I think it’s important to be familiar with food preparation. You don’t want to be in a crisis and not know how to cook your survival food quickly and properly.
Recently, I threw a survival party in my backyard. It was a great teaching moment for my family. We used food that was approaching its expiration dates, and I had a chance to teach my extended family how to prep for disaster.
If you’re not able to use survival food in your daily life, please donate it to a worthy cause. My local youth homeless shelter happily takes survival food up to the date of expiration. They put the food to good use and I get a tax write-off for my donation.
Batteries and Light Sticks
Batteries are an easy item to rotate into your daily life, but if you’re unable to use them, check with local schools and libraries for donation opportunities. Light sticks are perfect for a family camping trip, or can be donated to a local kid’s or church camp.
That date is NOT an expiration date. It is a ‘Best If used By’ date.
What if you cannot boil water?
The above is a good teaching tool. I would like to suggest that you and your family come up with ideas that you can use as food with heat and food that you an eat without heat. This is assuming that the power is out and you don’t have a gas stove, grill or burner at hand to cook on. Think about it for a minute, what would make a good meal without you having to dip into your peanut-butter and jelly stash. I’m putting you on the spot to come up with some ideas. So please share.
Next, you will need the appropriate camping survival gear. Remember, your gear should reflect both summer time as well as winter environments for you and your family to survive. Rule of thumb, get stuff that you can use in frigid weather. Then if you need to switch over to a hot environment you can either do one of two things, sleep on top of your sleeping bag or do without it. There are something you can’t use in the summer that you need during the winter; like insulated gloves, heavy jacket, snow boots and so on. But in an emergency they will be sufficient for your needs. (I was placed in an emergency situation where I wore snow boots and a winter jacket during the desert heat and I survived for three months.)
The number one rule while prepping is to be conservitive on all your resources be it water, food, supplies or equipment. Your mind set has to be one of “What if this is the last one of my ______ (fill in the blank.)”
Just think about your tools that you may have and how difficult it may be to get a replacement for it. You guys out there know what I mean. Ladies think about the kitchen tools that are no longer made or if they are how flimsy they are made now a days. The same can be said about your survival gear. What you get today may not be available for your tomorrow or the quality you deserve.
Best of all use your imagination and see what you can re-purpose one item for a new and different need. Let your inner MacGyver run free.
Al you can always boil water. With a long piece of wire strip the center of the wire and put loops in the wire. Just wrap it around a pen or pencil. Use a car battery, or a motorcycle battery, or better yet a 9 volt battery and connect each end of the wire to each pole or terminal of the battery. Then put the wire into the water. Electricity will run through the wire heating up your water in less than 3 minutes.
Of course if you are out camping, heat up several small stones then dump them into your water. Just be certain to remove the stones before cooking, eating or drinking. An old Indian trick.