It's official! I'm the new ward emergency preparedness nag. My teaching credential makes me licensed to nag in many states and I have reciprocity with many others, so I'm well equipped for the job. Years of tracking Scholastic book orders and managing fund raisers has prepared me well for putting sign-up sheets on the Relief Society clipboard and tracking down everyone who signed up for their $15 so I can place the potato pearls order.
Although on the upside, I went digging through my own storage today looking for more peach butter and found another whole can of potato pearls! Life is looking up.
I also found another sister at church who wants to go in with me on a side of beef. In addition to saving us a ton of money on meat over the next year, by the time we're done eating it all, we'll be ready to go vegan and that will save us even more money.
I really need to get my little food storage corner of the basement cleaned and repainted.
Funny part of today:
Brother D: [not knowing I'd received a tip-off about this calling and thinking I was going to need to be talked into getting excited about it] It's um, a really important calling. Well, truthfully, our ward needs a lot of help with this. Maybe we could have a canning trip soon . . .
Me: When was the last canning trip?
Brother D: Um. [laughs, tosses the whole "paint a rosey picture" tactic over shoulder] Never! I don't know. I can't recall one in years.
He says that his general feeling is that a lot of people who welcome the chance to improve their food storage with some encouragement and someone to organize it all. This is good as I'm getting better and better at using/planning my food storage in a way that actually benefits the family and our budget. I just need a LOT more of it.
I made a yummy oatmeal molasses bread last night. I need to post the recipe to my new yahoo group.
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7 comments:
Ok, I'm totally intrigued by this idea and, rather than asking busy you for ideas and explainations, I'll ask for some good websites to visit.
Why?
What?
How?
etc.
Poppins
www.providentliving.org is a good place to start. But the short version is that we're coached to be self-sufficient. That means being out of debt and having a safety net in the event of an emergency. An emergency can be sudden medical bills, the loss of the job that supports the family, or a natural disaster. Having large food stores that you rotate into your regular eating habits helps your grocery dollar go much further (so you can put that money towards paying off debt) and it gives you something to live on if your money suddenly evaporates.
We're also supposed to keep 72 hours worth of water, some way to cook stuff (I keep my camp stove in with my food stuff, but we have a propane grill, so that counts, too), and a first aid kit and some medication if you need it.
I got into it originally through a friend in So Cal and discovered that it really WAS great when money would get tight. Then I discovered that the bread flour you buy in bulk is SO much better than the 5 lb stuff at the grocery store (if you know where to go) and that got me completely hooked.
Like anything else, the larger your bulk food order, the cheaper the price. So to get the dirt cheapest price on whatever (we've bought brownie mix in bulk through the church, fresh peaches for canning by the case, etc) there's someone whose job it is to coordinate bulk food orders. For this ward, it is now me. Poor ward ;)
I think your ward is very blessed to have you.
I am thankful for the many books and information on this topic that my mother collected over the years. They've helped us in figuring out the process step-by-step. It's frustrating to be on the outside of the LDS church, where the same tenets make us "fringe wackos" rather than a prepared and responsible part of a community.
I'd still give body parts to have an AK nearby! :-) Good luck with your new position, Emerg. Prep. Czar!
Dy
Congratulations!! I think my ward is holding off until J gets back before giving me a calling. I'm a bit nervous about what that would be :)
One ward we lived in was GUNG-HO about food storage. Constantly planning trips, passing things out etc. This ward just called a new specialist, but they haven't done anything yet. I'm feeling the need to forge ahead in this area soon as we feel like a "real" family again (as in all members here in the same house).
Anyway, wish we lived closer. Your ward is very lucky.
Laura aka Linko
Laura,
How far are you from the Maryland cannery? Maybe there's a day in the fall we could meet there -- can apple slices and have a WTM meeting :)
hey - thanks for explaining this. I was curious too.
Somewhere in storage, I have a great book on food storage. How ironic! Anyway, it was written by a LDS woman. I learned a LOT from that book.
Jill
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