"Those who forget the pasta are condemned to reheat it." -Author Unknown
Charity Food Box
It’s well known in my community that I am a stockpiler and I have no doubt that the very people who ridicule me for hoarding food are going to be the same people who show up on my doorstep if the season of hunger ever arrives. Yes, I will get to gloat a little on that day and feel smug, but I still won’t want those people to starve to death. I want to have something to share; something I can easily hand over to them in order to keep them going. So I set out to see how much non-perishable nutrition I could fit into the smallest possible package for the least amount of money.
For my container, I chose a regular run-of-the-mill filing box, of the sort that can be found in any office or closet. I bought it at my local thrift shop for 75 cents. Then I set out to fill it, buying just a few items every time I went shopping so that the cost was spread out over several weeks. I am a super-couponer so many of the items I bought were greatly discounted. The neighborhood dollar store also offered wonderful bargains, as did the local Costco. I focused on buying food whose cooking instructions were: “Just add water”. I did not want any item that required additional ingredients such as eggs or butter or oil because those might not be available. Of course, I was also looking for food items that have a shelf life that falls somewhere between “indefinite” and “forever”. After a month of conscientiously collecting a few items each trip to the store, this is what I packed in my survival filing box:
For my container, I chose a regular run-of-the-mill filing box, of the sort that can be found in any office or closet. I bought it at my local thrift shop for 75 cents. Then I set out to fill it, buying just a few items every time I went shopping so that the cost was spread out over several weeks. I am a super-couponer so many of the items I bought were greatly discounted. The neighborhood dollar store also offered wonderful bargains, as did the local Costco. I focused on buying food whose cooking instructions were: “Just add water”. I did not want any item that required additional ingredients such as eggs or butter or oil because those might not be available. Of course, I was also looking for food items that have a shelf life that falls somewhere between “indefinite” and “forever”. After a month of conscientiously collecting a few items each trip to the store, this is what I packed in my survival filing box:
- Fried rice mix – American manufacturers tend to fill a box only half full so I poured a second box of rice into the box and re-sealed it with tape. I do not want any empty air pockets in this box; I want it to be as densely packed as possible.
- Rice – At the dollar store, a two pound bag of rice costs a buck. Whatta deal!
- Beans beans beans!! – Beans can be ground into flour; sprouted and eaten as a salad; boiled into soups; mashed; or planted in the backyard bean field. I included three different types, in case pinto beans grow better in the backyard than black beans do, or in case the red beans taste better in burritos than black beans.
- Spaghetti – Again, I opened the box, shoved as much spaghetti in there as the box could possibly hold, and re-sealed it.
- Pasta-Roni – I removed the food from the cardboard packaging, threw the box away, and just packed the food. The boxes are bulky and take up too much space.
- Soup mix – The type that make a pot full instead of a cup full. Not only is this a good way to rehydrate people, but it also is an excellent way to flavor the beans and the rice.
- Various packets of seasonings, sauces, and gravy – also for flavoring pasta, beans and rice
- Bouillon cubes – see above. Also, I wanted to fill every nook and cranny of the box and bouillon cubes did the job nicely.
- Dehydrated potatoes of various sorts, including instant mashed potatoes, instant yams, and au gratin potatoes. As with the Pasta-roni, I removed the inner envelopes from their boxes, cut the cooking instructions out of the boxes, kept the instructions and the food, and threw the boxes away as a space saving measure.
- Tuna and sardines – good for mixing in with either rice or pasta.
- Honey – Honey never spoils and it can also double as a first aid item. Pour honey on a bandage before bandaging a wound it and the honey will kill bacteria and prevent infections.
- Powdered milk packet – Especially important if there are babies around
- Instant oatmeal packets
- Pancake mix – On sale for 50 cents a package at WalMart
- Hot chocolate packets
- Instant coffee
- Tea bags – also handy for filling up the tiny leftover spaces in the box
- Salt, sugar, and creamer packets swiped from a restaurant
- Instant pudding mix
- Jello – good source of protein and easily digested
- Miscellaneous hard candy and gum
- Ziplock baggies – in case they want to share some of what they’ve got with other people
- Bic lighter – in case they don’t have matches
- Instruction sheet – including helpful post-Armageddon cooking tips (such as how to cook food if you don’t have much fuel available) and a diagram of how to construct a hobo stove out of a tin can. The filing box itself could serve as a halfway decent hobo stove with the right modifications.
The items in this box cost me less than $25. Spread out over a month, that’s just about a dollar a day. There’s nothing here to break my budget. In fact, it was so easy to slip these items into my regular shopping trips that I decided to fill one of these boxes every single month. For every year that goes by before TEOTWAWKI, I will have an extra dozen filing boxes full of good stuff to share. The boxes can be easily stashed in a closet, under the bed, behind a desk. My goal is to have one in each room of my house. They can be disguised with a simple label saying “Grandma’s medical records” or “taxes and receipts” or “honeymoon photos”. If my house is ransacked and looted, the typical marauder is not going to expect to find food in a filing box.
I would encourage everyone to do this as well. Just think of how important that food could be if the end of the gravy train ever arrived. Is it worth a dollar a day to you to invest in the future of your friends and family?
I would encourage everyone to do this as well. Just think of how important that food could be if the end of the gravy train ever arrived. Is it worth a dollar a day to you to invest in the future of your friends and family?
$50 Worth of Food: Three Forms
Now consider this: The following three pictures all represent $50 worth of food. These ten Insta-Eat kits are designed to keep you on your feet on the day the SHTF when you are overwhelmed, overworked, and underfed. Now consider this: The following three pictures all represent $50 worth of food. These ten Insta-Eat kits are designed to keep you on your feet on the day the SHTF when you are overwhelmed, overworked, and underfed.
These two Charity Food Boxes cost about $25 each to fill with non-perishables which will keep your entire family fed for a week or more, provided you have potable water and the ability to cook the most basic foodstuffs. These are perfect for after the dust has settled a bit but the rescue operations are not yet in full swing and normality has not yet been restored.
This stack of provisions will keep body and soul together if normality is not going to be restored for some time. If you have venison, garden vegetables, trout, fruit trees, or leftovers in your cupboards, this will stretch you through an entire winter.
If you set aside all three of these forms of provisions, you've got "flee", "hunker", and "survive" all taken care of. Try to plan for:
The day of the disaster
The week of the disaster
The month of the disaster
The year of the disaster
The decade of the disaster
Total cost for the whole shebang: $150.
Not starving to death: PRICELESS
If you set aside all three of these forms of provisions, you've got "flee", "hunker", and "survive" all taken care of. Try to plan for:
The day of the disaster
The week of the disaster
The month of the disaster
The year of the disaster
The decade of the disaster
Total cost for the whole shebang: $150.
Not starving to death: PRICELESS