Many of us who are active in preps have put away, "a little extra" to help out family, friends and neighbors who do not prepare for any type of emergency. We have visions of handing out small "care packages" to these folks. I, personally, have a good portion of my rice, wheat, beans and corn in 2 pound vacuum packs for this very reason (plus to make them more easily bartered).
But what happens if it gets REALLY ugly. What if there is a total societal breakdown where food and water are quite literally more valuable than gold?
Others have prepared "refugee meals" to hand out to the miserable masses that stream past their retreat - "Here, take this and move on". Some have set MREs aside for this purpose. One cool idea I saw was a family who made up about 100 meals consisting of a 2 liter bottle of water and a small metal paint can full of rice and dried beans. On top of the product but under the lid was a pack of matches. The idea was for folks to take this food kit and move out to a place where they would have to build a fire and cook – so they wouldn’t hang around.The post has a link to his forum where the conversation is continued. I highly recommend reading both the article and the forum posts. They REALLY make you think.
What happens if they DON'T move on? What if they set up camp across the road (or just down the road out of sight) and you become a soup kitchen. What happens when there is no more "soup" and you now have a mass of humanity right across the street? Hungry humanity.
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Along these lines, I hope to be speaking with the pastor of my wife's church early next week to discuss putting on classes on personal emergency preps for the members. I want to take this template and duplicate it at all of the churches in our area. It's a chance to do well while doing good.
One of the things the post above discussed was working with the churches NOW to get them in a position of acting as food distribution centers in the event of an emergency. If things were to get truly ugly, the normal disaster groups - FEMA and the Red Cross - would very likely be overwhelmed.
I am now working on a emergency prep model for church and civic groups. Most have significant storage space for food, water and equipment, as well as having kitchens and the facilities to serve many people in an orderly fashion.
UPDATE: More food for thought - Take a look at this YouTube video of a Twilight Zone episode called, The Shelter.
Accept The Challenge
What are your, "Help The Hungry" plans during a disaster? Sadly, if things do get ugly, the chances of neighbor turning against neighbor is quite high. If you had no food or water, and sick and hungry children, you'd do ANYTHING to get them fed and cared for.
Your neighbors are no different.
I obviously think it is prudent to do emergency preps. I think it is also prudent to keep your plans to yourself. You can make your charity plans without putting up a billboard stating, "FOOD HERE!"
In an emergency, you will be painted as a "hoarder" and the powers that be will make the "moral" decision to take your preps and share them with the masses. BTW, a "hoarder" is someone who accumulates scarce commodities during a time of emergency. You're doing it now, during times of plenty.
Try explaining that to the mob that is forming outside your home.
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5 comments:
That's a real gut-wrencher. I hate to think about children going hungry, but a mob outside my door demanding food is even scarier. I think I'd still be inclined to share, but anonymously, through a church or even care-packages left on the threshold by the light of the moon.
When/if IT happens, my brother and his family will be the ones I worry about. Pardon my saying so, but my sister in law is as smart as a sack of hammers. She wouldn't know what to do with a bag of rice or beans if they were left on her door. I think my brother knows a little better than she does, but not by much; they're total convenience food people. Wow do they have a shock coming!
I think one of the side benefits of doing a church deal is that it would be VERY public. Lots of people would know that the church is the place to go for meals.
It's an interesting issue with family members that basically refuse to prepare. Perhaps send them a book on preps. Maybe even the book I mentioned in the last post, "One Second After". It's fiction, but might give you a point to start a discussion.
I don't know if you commented before I put the update with the link to the Twilight Zone show. If so, give the link a click. Interesting on a bunch of levels.
The funny thing about my brother...he loved the survival shows that were on last season. Remember, the one with the folks in the warehouse and the other one was on SPIKE...I can't remember what it was called. Anyway, he loved those, but absolutely clammed up if I brought up food reserves. At least my mom and I talked him into a garden last year. Baby steps, baby steps.
BTW...my husband was referencing your site last in a discussion on shooting practice. I think he's hooked!
That's a great point - if you bash them over the head with it, they'll reflexively pull away. It's like getting kids to eat veggies!
Glad to hear your husband likes the site!
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