Short-Term Food Storage Makes Sense

Had you even heard of Supply Chain Disruption before 2019?  Shortages of items we want/need for our household, along with steadily rising prices are a new reality. Because the USA imports so many of our consumer and medical products, it introduces a greater chance for supply interruption.  

Whether the food on your table is USA grown and packaged, or comes from outside our country, transporting it to your local stores is a link in the supply chain.  Home storage of an emergency supply of essential items is sensible for COVID times and other emergencies/disasters. 

This article is about simple, short-term pantry storage from which you could create meals, without relying upon grocery store supplies or the benefit of refrigerated foods -- for several weeks 

Strategies for Long-term Food Storage

Long-Term Food Storage:  There are three approaches:  1) Store larger quantities of short-term canned/packaged items; 2) No. 10 cans or 5-gallon buckets of bulk ingredients; or 3) Freeze-dried or dehydrated foods; or a combination. 

For canned and packaged long-term storage, you will need some way to organize the food so that you can rotate it into your regular meal planning.  Use organizers designed for a FIFO system (first in, first out) to aid rotation.  Put in the newest can(a) at the top and take out the oldest at the bottom.  A browser search for “canned food organizers” will net you lots of choices.  Mine are cardboard and arrive flat, requiring some easy folding assembly.    

Essential Preparation can Save Lives and Property

Neighborly Network:  How vulnerable were you in our recent power outage? Was it because of your age, disability, physical limitation, living alone, or because you were unprepared that you felt vulnerable?  

To those in the Intermountain West: Were you suddenly, starkly aware that you were ill-prepared for the sustained loss of power and unseasonably cold temps?  Did your home/yard sustain damage?  Were you dependent upon others near-by?  

Avoid the Pain & Inconvenience of Power Outages

While You and I can’t prevent sustained electrical outages, we can Prepare to limit our pain/Inconvenience the next time it happens. 

For the most part, the three days my household was w/o power were not extremely “painful” because of preparation. This emergency was my opportunity to test gear and know-how and see if I could stand up to this challenge with my physical limitations.  I’m including my Lessons Learned in the topics below.   

Sensible Preparation and Response

Refrigeration:  We kept fridge and freezers closed to conserve cold.  I waited too long to save many refrigerator items, (foodsafety.gov says 4 hours) but acted quickly enough (48 hours) to save frozen meats/fish, etc., with bags of ice in well-insulated coolers.  This was a high stress item for me.  I’ll do better next time.  

I now keep 10 bags of ice in my freezer units, along with pre-frozen packs, that I can transfer to coolers early enough to save refrigerator items as well as frozen food.  

Hurricane Force Winds: Some Without Power for a Week

Has your usual experience with electrical outages been like mine – power is restored within minutes or a few hours at most.  Rarely power interruptions last into the next day.  

Who could have predicted an Arctic cold front hitting Utah, Idaho and Wyoming at the end of a very hot Summer?  Especially one that brought not only early winterish temps but sustained high winds, some of hurricane force surging to 112 miles per hour? 

First OFFICIAL CDC Stratified US Statistical Profile of COVID-19 Mortality

Click on image to enlarge

Note: This is not new data. This profile has been reported by various researchers/commentators for months, but it has not been officially profiled until now. 

Presented by Steve Deace, on 8/12/20

• Age 85 and older make up 3.2% of the U.S. population but make up one-third of all COVID deaths.
• Age 75 and older make up 7% of U.S. population but 59% of COVID deaths. 
• Age 54 and younger make up 70% of the U.S. population but 8% of COVID deaths.
• Deaths DO NOT register until age 15-24 and even then, kids K-12 make up .02% of the population. Kids K-college undergraduate, according to data released by the CDC, are in no significant danger of dying of COVID-19. 
• The median age of COVID-19 deaths is around 78, which is the average U.S. life expectancy.  

"The CDC coded all deaths "Died with COVID" rather than "Died from COVID," Deace explained.  We do not know how many people were healthy, contracted COVID and died from COVID-19. 

Mask Wearing. Are you Persuaded by Case Studies?

Walgreens has published two examples, sourced to the CDC, that make a persuasive case for wearing a mask in indoor, group environments.

Cloth face masks/coverings can help keep people infected with COVID-19 from spreading the virus to others. COVID-19 is mainly known to be transmitted between people through respiratory droplets when an infected person coughs, sneezes or talks. Studies show that these droplets can travel about six feet. However, when an infected person wears a mask that covers their nose and mouth, it can keep most of the droplets from spreading to people who are nearby.