Be Prepared, Do Good and Save Money

Every time we hear of a new emergency—whether fire, flood, earthquake, snow or some other disaster—we are reminded that we really “should” have emergency food supplies ready to use at a moment’s notice.  Yet how easy it is to just buy a few boxes and cans and put them in a cupboard and think that we’re prepared.  There they sit in the cupboard and we forget about them and eventually the foodstuffs are beyond the point where you would want to eat them, emergency or not!

So…what to do?  After studying suggestions for about WHAT foodstuffs could be in an emergency food box, I identified 15 things that would be good to eat, that I would eat, that could be eaten without much additional preparation except, perhaps, for the addition of water.  So now, with the addition of fresh water, I had a basic food list including fruits, cereals & grains, meat, fish, nuts and cheese and vegetables.

I went to a local warehouse food store and bought a group package of each item—just 15 different  items but each in quantity—plus  water.  The total food bill was close to $120 (without the water).  Then I purchased a large garage storage container (with wheels).  Guess what?  The purchased items just fit!  I labeled the container “EMERGENCY FOOD.”

Now I felt I was ready for an emergency—and that I had enough to feed others as well.  But how long did I want to keep these foods?  Although they weren’t perishable, I did want them to be close to fresh when we needed to eat them.  I settled on replacing the foods and water every 6 months.  I used 9/11 as one calendar marker, and then put in 3/11 as the next replacement time.

When six months had passed, I boxed up the foods purchased six months earlier and took them to my city Food Bank, along with the purchase receipt and food list.  They could easily see that what I was giving them matched what I had purchased, and I got a donation receipt from the Food Bank for the full $120 amount.

I then went on to the food warehouse and purchased nearly the same foods and at nearly the same prices.  The total again was $120.  By the time I did this the third time I could realize the value of continuing this process every six months.

Over one year I had spent $240—but I also had receipts for $240 in food donations to use at income tax time—and I also had a box of fresh emergency foods in my garage at all times—and the Food Closet had received $240 worth of food to help others.  So I could feel PREPARED because I had a box of emergency foods in the garage, I could feel CHARITABLE because I had given foods to the Food Bank to help others, and I could feel THRIFTY because I had a charitable deduction income tax write-off for a for the money I had spent to be prepared.  I’d say we all win!