Greenwood/Elk: Community Notes
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From your Elk Emergency Preparedness Committee: In early 2018, as EEPC was researching and preparing for our town Survival Fair, the price of freeze-dried chicken in a #10 can from a well-known company was around $25. Today it’s almost $80, well beyond what most people can afford. Farmers in California and parts of Oregon are facing depleted water sources, and certain areas are receiving NO water allotments for the 2022 growing season. Farmers in other parts of the country are being hit with untimely freezes and severe flooding. According to climate scientists, farmers will be producing less food this year, a trend that is predicted to worsen over the next 20 — 30 years. This is due to a prolonged drought, temperatures too hot for plants to grow in, new invasive plants & harmful insect populations to deal with, etc.
Humans need calories to survive food shortages, whether it’s a short-term disaster or long-term food production issues. While pre-prepared survival food buckets are readily available, assembling your food can save you money. For example, you can purchase a 20# bag of rice for about $11.28 at a “big box store.” With a ¼ cup uncooked serving, there will be about 210 servings in that 20# bag. That comes to about 3,240 calories per dollar! A 25# bag of black beans sells for approximately $43.67 and contains about 37,647 calories or 862 calories per dollar.
Dried beans, rice, pasta, powdered milk, instant mashed potatoes, instant oatmeal, grits, ‘chunky’ powdered soup mixes, industrial-sized bags of trail mix, and even sugar are all high-calorie/low dollar food items. And don’t forget about canned foods: beef stew, spam, ravioli, ‘chunky’ soups, canned tuna & chicken, Vienna sausages, olive oil, and Crisco will all work for high-calorie/low dollar foods.
You must consider how to store these foods safely. They should be in cool locations with no sunlight and free from rodents and insects. You must also consider the bulk and weight of these items and expiration dates, and food rotation.
There are unlimited internet resources on this very topic. But remember — the longer you wait, the more expensive this will get. So again, NOW IS THE TIME!