“What’s For Dinner, Mom ?”
Well, Hi there! ... and welcome to my blog site! I just taught a Stake Enrichment class on 3 month supply and I'd like to share my notes and thoughts for anyone who might be interested.
Here is the handout I prepared from that class --- Plus --- additional notes in colors here and there. I'm hoping will provide kind of a framework to help make sense of all the rest of the stuff I will be adding -- in kind of random order -- from now on! This first one is a long one... to introduce everything else...the rest will probably be short blips and ideas... so bear with me! Thank you, good luck, and may your family be blessed. With love, Janet Clark
That innocent little question can sure cause a lot of stress when we don’t know the answer! Remember the old saying “they don’t know where their next meal is coming from”? That used to describe someone who was poverty stricken. Now most people in our society live that way every day!
A recent survey among women stated on any given day at 4:00 PM in the United States, 90% of them have no idea what they are going to make for dinner that night! What a lot of stress that generates!
Why do we do this to ourselves and our families? Usually it's because most of us don't like to plan...or we get too busy... or distracted...and after all, we can usually pull off dinner at the last minute in one form or another! ("Hello, I'd like to order a pizza, please...") No one I know had any kids starve to death last week... (I apologize for that remark to the people who really do experience that kind of tragedy throughout the world.)
We are being asked by our church leaders to get organized and store 3 month’s worth of dinners (and other food too!)
Sounds stressful, but, wait, think how much less stress we would have if we actully did know what we were going to make for dinner…tonight…and every night, for the next three months! Hmmm.
You know, it doesn't really matter what we have on our shelves, in the freezer, or in our pantry... as far as our families are concerned, it's all about ... what's for dinner!
What Are Our Church Leaders Actually Asking us to do?
Answers given are quoted from http://www.providentliving.org/ under Family Home Storage – Frequently Asked Questions (For any who may not know, the church I'm referring to is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.)
“Build a small supply of food that is part of your normal, daily diet. One way to do this is to purchase a few extra items each week to build a one-week supply of food. Then you can gradually increase your supply until it is sufficient for three months. These items should be rotated regularly to avoid spoilage.”
(Just think: If you buy just 1 extra meal per week, in only 7 weeks you’ll have an extra week’s worth of meals!
If you continue doing it, you’ll keep adding another week’s worth every seven weeks!
By regularly doing this one simple thing, in a year and a half – you’d automatically have a full three month’s supply of food in your home --- and it would be food that your family likes -- and is used to eating!
That is encouraging to me! It doesn't have to be some big deal we do all at once! We are not being asked to rent a truck and unload Costco into our living room!)
Anything else are we being asked to do?
It used to be that the church had a detailed Food Storage Program, telling us how many pounds of wheat and other items recommended to store per person. Now the program has gotten very simple and we are left to make the decisions about what and how much we would like to store according to our own families preferences and circumstances. See or download the church's guidelines in this pamphlet at this site if you don't have one:
Why is Saving Money Number 2 on a Checklist for Food Storage Guidelines?
Interestingly enough, it's in the Home Storage Pamphlet and the Financial Guidelines Pamphlet we have been given. Hmm. The church must consider it pretty important to put it out there twice. And they're telling us, to save WEEKLY, even if it's just a few coins per week.
Hmmm. Everybody can do that. Even if they just have a penny jar somewhere. Even if it's just a little tiny bit, we are being asked to save, and if we do it we will be blessed. There's this little thing about obedience, it doesn't even matter how small our efforts are, if we are doing what we can! We will be blessed and eventually able to save more, and that would be good news! While on the subject of money, it's been suggested that we have a supply of cash on hand and especially in small denominations, such as $1.00 bills. In a difficult situation, debit cards may not be able to be used, and checks would probably not be accepted. During the Hurricane Katrina aftermath, people were paying $20 for a small bottle of water...because no one had any change!
What kind of foods should we store in our three month’s supply?
“Three-month supply items are foods that you normally eat, including canned and commercially packaged foods.”
There is no checklist from the church list telling us what or how much to store. It is all about what our family normally eats, and learning how to store what they like. The best foods to store are foods that keep on our shelves without spoiling, especially in the event of our power being interrupted.
Don’t go into Debt for it…
“It is not prudent to go to extremes or go into debt to establish your home storage all at once. Gradually build reserves over time as financial resources and space permit.”
Just EAT it!
Some people make a week's menu and decide to repeat it 12 times to get their 3 month's supply of food and are able to do that quickly. That's does make it easy to go out and get 'er done, and it's great if it work's for them, but ... if we are actually supposed to eat this food regularly and not just wait until an emergency, uh, my family would soon not be supporting this plan anymore.
And if it were an actual "situation" where we had to eat this food, the same thing for 12 weeks in a row, to me, that wouldn't add much cheer to a situation that would have to already be pretty stressful.
I could go with a 3 week's menu repeated 4 times though...and it wouldn't be too bad. Some people go with a 4 week menu repeated 3 times...but it's all about what works for you!
Pandemic Preparation
This is a pretty tough situation to talk about, but one that the church and world governments are taking pretty seriously. Back in 1918 an terrible flu spread across the world and many, many people died. My grandfather was 17 when it hit. The small southern Utah town he lived in was in a bad way. There were not enough people who were well to take care of those who were sick.
My grandfather was asked to go and nurse a family who were all down with the flu - mother, Father, and 4 children were all too sick to get up. You know it's got to be pretty desperate when a 17 year old teenage boy is sent in a situation that serious.
I remember him telling that he took care of and nursed that family day and night for 3 days straight, with no sleep, but they all pulled through. I imagine that without his help, not all of them would have made it.
I"ve heard that the current bird flu they are so concerned about, is a 6th generation strain of that 1918 flu. It took a week for it to spread across the country then. Now they estimate that it will take only hours to spread if it mutates into an airborne virus.
Currently the bird flu virus is only spread by direct contact, but if it goes airborne - spread by small droplets through coughing, sneezing, etc,-- the consequences would be very serious.
It is just like flu symptoms we are familiar with -- it can be coughing, respiratory type flu, or it can also be intestinal flu. It is just very, very severe. About 50% of the people who get this flu do not make it.
The church has put out detailed instructions on how to be prepared for this possibility, including supplies to store, how to prevent the spread of the disease, care for the sick, etc. A lot of it is very common sense things to know, that are simple, but would be very important in such times. I recommend that you go to the church website (link below) and print them all out, put them in a 3 ring binder somewhere, and get those supplies, and learn what is needed to know. I started doing a short spotlight in family home evening to teach some of these principles.
I told my family, I hope we never need to know this, and maybe we wouldn't need it for years, but it will be smart of us to be prepared, just in case. Here is the link. Also there is a link on that page to a government site with more information, and a training video prepared by BYU. I haven't watched that yet... but I will!
http://providentliving.org/content/display/0,11666,8041-1-4414-1,00.html
Why did I include Pandemic Preparation in a class about 3 month supply?
Read the following quote ...
“Families should prepare at least two weeks of emergency supplies (food, water, medicines, and so forth) in order to shelter in place during an influenza pandemic. Consult “Preparation for Home Emergencies and Natural Disasters” under Provident Living at www.lds.org. Those living in areas with undependable infrastructure for water, electricity, and food availability should evaluate their situation and prepare emergency supplies accordingly (nonperishable food, potable water, medicines, and so forth.) for the possibility of sheltering in place for at least 2 and up to 12 weeks.”
So, did you notice they discussed "sheltering in place" for 2 to 12 weeks. This could mean staying in your home, to avoid catching the deadly flu. One more reason why we have been asked to store a "3 Month" supply of food -- besides all the usual suspects ... all those cheerful other kind of rough things that can happen.
None of us wants to see that awful flu happen. But if it did, and we were required to stay home with our families... how would we feel if we had not taken the time to plan and prepare to have food in our homes, on our shelf, that our familes can eat.
Some have suggested that in the event of a outbreak, we might not be 'allowed' to leave our homes, that martial law would be imposed to prevent the spread of the disease. If that ''worst case scenario" happened, would you be able to feed your family? And for how long?
Okay, Tips and more cheerful stuff will be in my next blog... but I REALLY wanted to get this one posted... Its amazing how much opposition I've had to posting this, my computer has whacked out!!! (Can the adversary mess with computers?)
Good luck, with love and best wishes – Janet Clark janetmommy@msn.com please email me with questions or comments... :)
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