As I have already covered in another post, many preppers have been called selfish. Well, today’s post proves otherwise. Today, we discuss how to prep OURSELVES for OUR FAMILIES, FRIENDS, and NEIGHBORS. This isn’t about helping yourselves. This isn’t even about prepping for our direct family’s survival. We are the ones that believe what we say. Most everyone else doesn’t care, because they think we are wrong. We know better, but since their heads are in the sand and have been for some time, they don’t store up or build a minimal amount of sufficiency.
The result of this is that when a SHTF scenario occurs, they won’t be ready. Where do you think they will turn? People will turn to the ones that for the last five years, had preached about being prepared for everything. What do you do?
I guess you could answer the door and say, “I am truly sorry, Jim, but I only stored enough to feed my own children. I really wish I had enough for you, but I don’t. I hope you the best, but you can’t have any of our food. Try Tim’s house, I think he has a garden.”
There is a huge number of issues here. It doesn’t make you a bad person if you cannot feed other people, but it does hurt you. You will feel HORRIBLE when you can’t help anyone.
In another scenario, you would answer it like this: “Jim, I am glad you stopped by today. Here is a little bit to hold your family over for the rest of the week. I know it isn’t a lot, but it’s what I can give you.” He walks away with a box of food and you feel great that you had the food to give your neighbor.
Now for the “How do I prep for my neighbor” part of the post. This can possibly be the easiest part of your survival preparations, but still just as important.
I recommend prepping for them, the same way you would prep for yourself, when you were new to prepping and inexperienced. You will be looking for cheap, easy to store food that will keep them alive. We cant give everyone in the world our favorite fresh produce and grass fed meat.
The first item I would look at is dried beans. This is the main protein source in your neighborhood prep. Beans are used as the substitute for meat in lots of vegetarian diets. You could get pinto beans, black beans, northern beans, navy beans, lima beans, or even split peas. You can buy 20 pound supplies of each of these for around 20 bucks at Amazon, or you can go to your local grocery store and buy that way. Beans are really cheap still, and would be a great addition for your neighborhood prep. As a matter of fact, I went the other day and found one pound bags of black eyed peas for 60 cents on clearance when they are usually $1.50 a bag. I bought about 10 of them that day.
Another item I would look at is rice. We send rice around the world to countries that are starving. Why do we do this? Probably because rice is a great cheap staple that saves the lives of the starving. That probably makes it a good addition for us to give the neighbors, huh? A 50 pound sack of rice, whether long-grain brown, or white, costs about 50 bucks.
Speaking of staples, another staple is noodles. I can buy noodles cheap at the grocery, and on amazon they are 30 bucks for 11 pounds of spaghetti, penne, bionaturae, or fusilli. Noodles are a great carb source. We know carbs are bad for us today, but when people are hungry, carbs are high energy fuel.
Another quick idea is dried mixed fruit in small quantities. If you want to go a little above and beyond, your neighbors would love you for it. A 5 pound bag is 25 bucks.
To indulge the “Mad Max” scenario, you may even be able to use the cheap staples that you have stored to give to people so they will go on their way. So, suddenly, the food becomes a security benefit. Maybe nothing has happened and someone looses a job and aren’t prepared. You could give them a few beans, rice, noodles, etc. and help them out while they are getting things back together.
So guys, when you prep, give some thought and a little cash to stores for your neighbors. We can buy cheap and in bulk, giving less thought to the typical health concerns, because they would agree that that food is much better than starvation. A few bucks can save another life.