Recently, I had a friend come back from Maine on a business trip. His company is headquartered there and he visits once or twice per month. On this most recent trip, he took back some emergency food storage samples for his associates to try. The thought of having food storage for an emergency had never crossed their minds. They loved the idea of having additional food on hand but had never thought of it, even though they face terrible snowstorms almost every year. Their first reaction after having tried it was, “I want to buy some of this. Where do I get this from? How much should I have?”  For me, having lived in Utah all my days, I have been well aware of the importance of food storage and emergency preparedness. It wasn’t a new concept to me, but it was a shock that there are people unaware of food storage and the need for it.

It makes sense to most of us that we should be prepared for a time of emergency. History tells us that things happen; storms, earthquakes, tornadoes, severe storms, floods, and other natural disasters are real. Whether we believe it or not, these things can and do happen. When we watch natural disasters on the news we have a tendency to say that it will never happen to me or my family. But don’t be fooled, we are always just as likely as the next person to be faced with troubling times.

A year ago, “the storm of the century” was announced and everyone was told to get home early from work and get off the roads ASAP. A dear friend asked me if I was prepared should the power go out. In my head I thought, “sure, we have blankets and flashlights and some food.” He asked what kind of non-electric heater I had should we lose power, wanting to compare and make sure that he had what his family needed.  I realized that I wasn’t as ready as I thought and cringed at the thought of my three little girls being frozen.  I immediately went to Lowes and Home Depot bought the last indoor space heater that didn’t rely on electricity. I was amazed that there was only one left, and I was lucky enough to get it. What an idiot I had been. If my friend wouldn’t have brought it up I wouldn’t have even thought of the need of a heater should my power go out. I wondered how unprepared I was in other areas. I should have known better. I should have been more prepared.

Lucky for me, the massive storm turned out to be a few inches of snow that all melted by mid-afternoon the next day.  It’s funny how something someone says can motivate you to action in the blink of an eye. I hope that you will share this message, or even your own words, to help others and motivate them to be prepared.

Disasters are going to happen. We have the choice of whether to be prepared or unprepared. And there is no better time to prepare than when things are going well. In many instances the time right before the disaster is too late. Obtaining life’s necessities after the disaster happens is even worse.  Store shelves can be cleared out to not be filled again for days, weeks, or months. Don’t wait! Start preparing now. And make sure that you help others realize the security and peace of mind that comes from having a plan for whatever emergency situation may arise.

An emergency can happen at any time without notice. Being prepared for a variety of disasters with water, emergency food storage and other survival supplies is crucial to maintaining some control over the situation. Although often overlooked, your emergency preparedness supplies should include fire extinguishers to help protect your loved ones and your property.

A fire extinguisher is typically a hand-held, portable cylinder that you aim at the base of a fire and pull a trigger to discharge a dry chemical. It is used for small, contained fires, not fires that are out of control. Only fight a fire if you still have a means to escape. Follow your instincts and leave a house if the fire continues to grow.

Install multipurpose fire extinguishers that are labeled “ABC” for a variety of fire types. These are used for fires involving paper or wood, flammable liquids and grease, flammable gases and electrical fires involving appliances and equipment. ABC extinguishers cover most fires that occur in homes or in cars.

Fire extinguishers should be placed in your home and in each vehicle. Put an extinguisher in the kitchen, another one on each floor of the home, one in the garage and one in the basement. Do not store them too close to where a fire is likely to start. For instance, do not put a fire extinguisher in the cabinet next to the stove. If a fire starts at the stove, you will not be able to reach the extinguisher. Secure each fire extinguisher so that it is unable to be knocked over or pushed around. Place a fire extinguisher in front of the passenger seat of each vehicle, securely fastened to prevent damage.

Maintenance & Replacement

Do not make the mistake of installing fire extinguishers and then forgetting about them. Each month, visually inspect each fire extinguisher. Ensure that the instructions are visible, there are no obstructions in the way, the safety seals are intact, there is no corrosion or leakage, the hose and nozzle are in good condition, the pressure gauge is in the operable range, and check fullness by “hefting” the canister. It is a good practice to check each fire extinguisher when rotating your emergency food storage every month.

Perform maintenance annually. Check with your local fire department or fire extinguisher service company to examine all mechanical parts, extinguisher agent and means of expelling the agent. Some canisters may need a hydrostatic test that should be performed by experienced professionals. Replace all safety seals and remount each extinguisher. Keeping your fire suppression equipment in top condition will greatly increase your odds of successfully dousing a fire.

Most small multipurpose fire extinguishers are designed to be disposable. If you do have to break the safety seal to suppress a fire, replace the unit, even if you only used a small amount. It is better to be safe with a fully charged extinguisher than to hope a used one is ready for the next incident. If using a rechargeable canister, take it in immediately for replenishment, regardless of the indication on the gauge.

Make a Plan

Just as important as having fire extinguishers is having a fire escape plan. Develop a plan with the members of your household and make sure the plan is communicated effectively to each member. Discuss placement of each fire extinguisher and how to use them. Locate two exits from each room, and practice exiting in the dark. Remind each person to exit quickly in the event of fire and to crawl low to the ground while covering their mouth. Point out that closed doors should be felt before opening, and if the door is hot, leave it closed and use an alternate route. If the door is cool, open slowly with caution, ready to brace the door shut again if flames encroach. Designate a meeting place outside, and appoint one person to go to a neighbor to call for help. Install smoke alarms on each floor of your home, test them monthly, and replace the batteries twice a year. Practice your escape plan until it becomes routine, as thick smoke can cause confusion.

Emergency preparedness can appear overwhelming, but with a little planning and by following some routines, you can easily stay prepared for practically any disaster that may arise.

—Gary Jenkins

Gary Jenkins is a father and husband living in Oregon who is a wildlife rehabilitation and outdoor adventure enthusiast.

You may find yourself in the middle of an emergency without warning, and it is important to prioritize your efforts in those circumstances. You may not have access to your emergency food storage or other survival supplies, but you should find a water source first, then find or create shelter, and then build a fire if the conditions warrant. Only then should you consider what to do about food. One of your options might be edible plants, meaning plants that are safe for humans to eat, regardless of palatability.

This article is not meant to be a complete source of information on edible plants. Eating plants without positive identification is dangerous, as many plants are toxic and poisonous if ingested. Some poisonous plants look very similar to edible plants, for instance hemlock looks and smells like wild carrots. We strongly recommend that you obtain a complete field guide on edible plants in your area and learn as much as you can before finding yourself in an emergency.

Plants have several distinguishing features for identification such as leaves, flowers, roots, and seeds. There are some general guidelines as to which plant is toxic. If leaves are glossy, or grow in groups of threes, the plant is probably poisonous. Stay away from plants that have milky sap, thorns, or hairs. The exception to this is the dandelion, of which all parts are edible. Avoid plants that have an almond-like aroma, as these usually contain dangerous cyanide compounds. Fruit that has started to decay, has mold or mildew might contain unhealthy toxins and should not be eaten. If growing near contaminated water, then the plants themselves may also be contaminated and should be boiled for at least ten minutes before eating.

Some plants have both edible and poisonous parts. The leaves may be safe, while the roots are toxic or vice versa. It is important to learn about the entire plant. Certain plants may just not be palatable due to tannin compounds or acidic content. Boiling or baking these will remove the bitterness. Learn how to prepare plants that have these traits to make them more appealing. Do not eat wild mushrooms unless you are absolutely certain that you have identified the species. Some mushrooms can make you very ill or even cause death. Symptoms can take days to show up after eating toxic mushrooms, and by then the nervous system has been compromised, possibly beyond repair.

If a field guide is not available to you and if you are not well versed in which plants are safe, there is a test that you can conduct to see if a plant is edible. The test is very time consuming, so make sure there is plenty of that type of plant to eat afterward. It is important that you perform the test after having not eaten for at least eight hours and drinking only purified water. First, rub the plant on the inside of your elbow and wait fifteen minutes to see if you have a reaction. Next, prepare the plant as you would to eat it and touch it to your lip and wait for swelling or itching. Then hold it on your tongue and wait fifteen minutes for a reaction. You can then chew it and hold it in your mouth without swallowing your saliva. If all of these tests show no indication of toxicity, chew about a teaspoon of the plant and swallow it. Now wait about eight hours to see if you have a reaction. If you feel sick or nauseous, induce vomiting and drink plenty of water.

Emergency Preparedness advocates know that the “big 3” items for overall emergency prep include emergency food storage, water and shelter supplies. In addition to the “big 3” for overall preparedness there are 3 more important items to remember for your emergency survival kit. These include a high end Multi-Tool or Swiss army knife, a top of the line hunting knife and a firearm.

Multi-Tool: A good quality multi-tool can cost between $50-$100. This will be well worth the cost in case of emergency. Great and proven brands such as Leatherman or Gerber can last for years. A multi-tool can take the place of several different types of tools including a screwdriver, can opener for emergency food storage items, etc.

High Quality Hunting Knife: There are many types of knives on the market. Very large knives can create problems if they are too large to handle easily. Some knives on the market today are created especially for an emergency survival kit. They have hollowed handles for storing matches (which is arguably the fourth most important item for your survival gear) or other small survival items. The stainless steel varieties are a favorite for survival kits because they are will not rust in wet climates.

Firearm: There are debates on what the best survival firearms are. But, there is no debate that they can be extremely useful in emergency situations. A firearm can be used for hunting wildlife, defense, starting fires and signaling across long distances. It is crucial to educate yourself on your emergency firearms and to be comfortable using them.

Why does Glenn Beck promote food storage?  Why does he have gold commercials on his program as well?  Are these really radical concepts?  What is so radical about food storage?  I have food storage, you should too.  It isn’t because we want the world to end and after it all goes up in smoke, we can pull out our gourmet freeze dried food storage and during our meal laugh at all of the carnage and destruction around us and say, “Ha ha, told you so… and I get a feast while the rest of you suffer.”  No, that is not it.  Food storage is to prepare for the “just in case”.  There are some things that as people we really believe in strongly, and we say we hope we are wrong, and we really do want to be wrong.  There are other things that we really believe in and we say we hope we are wrong, but we are still conflicted inside because we have an emotional attachment to our argument where we really cannot conceive of actually being wrong in any way, shape, or form.  I think Glenn Beck really does want to be wrong about needing food storage, and I want to be wrong about ever needing food storage, because that could possibly mean that there may at some point in the future come a time where we cannot access speedily and conveniently (like we do now) whatever groceries we want whenever we want.  And I or anyone else would have to be stupid to want for that to happen.  So in this case, I don’t have an emotional attachment, and I don’t think Glenn Beck does either, about having to be right about needing food storage.

I hope people get it — I hope that they understand and that they get food storage just in case they ever need it, and for whatever reason.  It is not very fun to speculate why food storage would be needed, let your individual imagination and inspiration help you to understand why it may be a necessity.  I’m not here to paint gruesome doomsday pictures or suggest awful scenarios to scare you into buying food storage.  In fact this is very much a common sense issue.  Nobody should be coerced into buying food storage, they should each decide to get it on their own accord and feel good about their own decisions.  The strange thing is that many won’t consider food storage because food, the material which sustains our very lives, is just taken for granted.  But shouldn’t the very thing that sustains our lives have a pretty high priority, and shouldn’t we have plenty of it (more than necessary for the moment, in fact)?  If we were going to battle we wouldn’t take for granted having enough (or adequate) arms and ammunition, because we know that without them we would be ill prepared to save our own lives and/or conquer the enemy.  Yet, it is considered radical and extreme (by extremists themselves, I guess?) that anybody should want to have an adequate supply of food storage.  Silly, why would you want to store food, something that could come in handy to what… save your life?

Thank you Glenn Beck for being a voice of warning about food storage, about gold, about political concerns.  Unless you are hiding beneath a rock, it isn’t hard to conceptualize that there may be need of these things, and that our world is changing at an ever-increasing rate of speed.  Food storage is anything but radical or extreme.

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We have been using Lock & Lock food storage containers back in the states for quite some time now, ever since my sister-in-law brought some over from Korea as gifts about four years ago this summer. They are such wonderful creations! I have negelected to mention them up until now, probably because of my focus on emergency food storage for the most part. But, what about the everyday practical application of storing food in the refrigerator? Or dry goods in the pantry? The freezer, even.

Lock & Lock is the perfect food storage container solution. Why? Because these food storage containers have four latches (one per side) with a silicon seal. This makes for some serious security, making them airtight and eliminating spills in the event of ever dropping them. The tabs/latches on the sides snap firmly into place quite easily, and they unsnap just as easily. But they won’t just “give up their insides” when you drop them. That takes more inent. The Lock & Lock food storage containers are 100% air, moisture, liquid, and odor tight. I like the fact that I can store food in them for nearly twice as long as I could with other containers. Another thing that I like is that they are so versatile, and we can put them in the fridge, the freezer, or even the dishwasher to clean them with no worries at all. They also make reheating food in the microwave a snap.

When it comes to storing these food storage containers, you can stack them one inside another inside another… they come in all different sizes for different applications. And when they are filled with food, you can stack them on top of each other to conserve space.

I found out that these food storage containers have been around since 1998 and as of this month are sold in more than 100 countries around the world. No wonder they have been called the best food storage containers on the market. My wife uses them to make Kimchi (spicy fermented cabbage and spicy fermented radish). I use them mostly for leftovers. In the past I have not been much of a leftover person, because the look, smell, and texture of the food that is usually stored in the fridge with other methods turns me off. But when my wife puts the leftovers in the Lock & Lock food storage containers, game on! I’m all over it. It is still very fresh tasting for days afterward.

Move over Tupperware and Rubbermaid, you guys are ”has-beens”.  Make way for Lock & Lock. I doubt you’ll ever buy anything else once you get your hands on these innovations!

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Emergency food storage is not about fear mongering or scare tactics. It’s about emergency preparedness. You are preparing in advance so chaos and scarcity won’t ensue should a real emergency occur. But, these are the days wherein things that are right are called wrong, things that are wrong are called right, and the political spin doctors are working overtime. No wonder emergency food storage may be seen by some (who hang on every word of the mainstream media) as being “extreme”. When you live in a country that has a deficit of over $14 trillion, has over $75 trillion in unfunded liabilities, whose real unemployment is over 20 percent (Shadowstats.com), and where gold is over $1,200 denominated in the country’s currency, how would anybody with a little horse sense construe having some emergency food storage as being extreme? Unless they just don’t interpret the above figures as extreme!?

Common sense has become a very uncommon commodity. When bills more than a thousand pages long that are not even read have passage through Congress even considered, this is a huge red flag, and should give rise to concern and action on the part of individuals for protection. What more important action could we take to preserve our lives and freedoms than to protect ourselves from gross departure of our sacred constitutional principles by being self reliant and obtaining for ourselves and our families an emergency food storage supply to take car of our survival needs, and to secure our financial situation with constitutional money (gold and silver)? Common sense dictates: if you don’t take care of yourself, why should anyone else? What’s more – the future is uncertain – to beware and to prepare is nothing else if not logical.

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One of the reasons for storing emergency food is that food not only sustains us nutritionally, it is also great “normalizer” and an excellent balancing factor in the face of hardship. In the aftermath of an emergency if you are not cut off from a food source, your mind and spirit can be at least buoyed up and your power to endure enhanced. Think about it– people just tend to be in a better mood and more emotionally balanced when they have food in their bellies. I know a few people who when they get hungry are rather grumpy! Multiply that by a factor of 10 or more if you are hungry and despairing in the aftermath of a disaster. The tears would come a lot more easily. On the other hand, with food, the situation becomes more manageable. There is something about being satiated and our appetites being fed that counts a lot in “cooling our jets.”

Some think since our civilized society is so advanced that we would be able to weather any kind of emergency without disruption. Ask the Hurricane Katrina survivors if that’s true or not. It’s more close to NOT when it comes to hoping that Big Brother (Uncle Sam) is going to meet our every rescuing need. The government is woefully unable to fill such big shoes on such a wide scale. And we shouldn’t wait around expecting them to. Darwin had a few things right with his Theory of Evolution and Survival of the Fittest. In the case of having emergency food, you will be the “fittest” of a great number of people if you have it. There will be no regrets. Even if it only ever brought you peace of mind, emergency food would have done its job in my way of thinking.

You have the whole world at your feet right now at this moment. Yes, times are hard, but you have access to more food right now than you could ever consume in a lifetime. How sad would it be if you didn’t at least begin to obtain emergency food that could sustain you for a few week’s time? I dare say your WalMart is full of food enough for everybody right now, but in event of a major societal disruption (human caused or natural) it wouldn’t matter. Remember, it wasn’t raining when Noah built his ark. He was seen as a kook, but this shouldn’t bother you as much as your will to live should carry you forward to life sustaining emergency food accumulation.

Your emergency food supply can be very, very simple. Start out with a goal of a couple of weeks of emergency food. You can expand as resources allow. What is emergency food exactly? Emergency food may be nothing different from what you already eat on a daily basis. To make things simple it can be canned foods and items that require only easy preparation. You may also want to acquire some dehydrated and freeze dried emergency food selections. These two food choice types usually require only water and a heat source for reconstitution and they take very little time and effort to make ready for consumption. They also have the added benefit of storing for 5-plus years in many cases. A lot of people choose to add freeze dried and dehydrated foods to their emergency food storage pantry because they may not want to maintain/rotate them. They use them as an insurance policy. Whatever emergency food you should decide to gather, the important thing is that you get a start, even if it is slow and steady. Don’t be embarrassed or think you are under-doing it if it is only a can or a package at a time. Slow and steady wins the race!

Food is one of the main expenses of a family budget. If you can accumulate enough emergency food for both the short term and the long term (one year), you can weather many of life’s storms. If you should become financially strapped, such as a layoff, income loss due to physical illness that disables you for a time, etc., wouldn’t it make sense to have prepared in advance with emergency food “insurance”? You pay for health insurance and life insurance, why not look at food in the same light? Emergency food can in many different ways be your saving grace.

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