Tuesday, June 21, 2011

YouTube videos on food storage to help you get started

I'm gratefully busy enough now that I have a second job that I probably won't have time to write much for a few weeks, but I thought this link to food storage videos on YouTube might help some of you with your food storage efforts, or hopefully encourage you to get started ASAP:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=food+storage

Sunday, June 12, 2011

It's hard to put food on the table or in the deep pantry if you don't want to work

I guess if there's one gripe I have about my new job, it's not the long hours--it's that so many people there seem willing to not work. It's a factory job, and there's no guarantee from one day to the next that there will be enough work for all employees on any given shift. Last Monday, 15 minutes after the 100+ employees on our shift clocked in, the supervisor came around and said that she only needed about 20 people and asked for volunteers to leave. More than 70 people volunteered right then to go home. I don't know about you, but I can't afford to not work, and I don't know how anyone else can, either. Especially when it comes to long-term planning with food storage and any other such preparedness efforts, diligence in working or looking for work is imperative. Without such diligence, you're going to get really hungry very soon.

End of rant. My alarm is going off in less than six hours, so I need to get some sleep. I have a lot of work to do tomorrow. ;)

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Being prepared keeps you from having to rely on "the system"

As an addendum to my past few posts, I've had several people comment to me over the past several weeks since I lost my previous job that I should've applied for food stamps after I lost my job, since I'd obviously paid into the system and was now in need. A few people I know only in online forums (primarily preparation/food storage-related sites) have said that while it's great that my family has enough food for several months, this might not be the ultimate "stuff hits the fan" scenario for me, so instead of depleting my deep pantry, they said, I should apply for all possible aid that I was eligible for, since I'd "earned" it.

Someone needs to get a lesson or six in zero-sum economics.

And they need to learn what real hunger is like (as I did 13 years ago) and take steps to prevent it in the first place (as I have been doing since that time).

You'd have to be living on Pluto to not realize that the world in general and the U.S. in particular are in dire financial shape right now. The bottom line is that there just isn't enough money for all the needs, much less all the wants, that people have. More and more people are going hungry and turning to food banks and the charity of others to help fill their stomachs, and government dollars are drying up as millions more people apply for food stamps and other such aid. I could go on and on about the federal government's reckless printing of money out of thin air, but since states, cities, families and individuals have to live within their means or go bankrupt, I'll just make this point again: Since "the system" doesn't have the means to take care of you, you need to do all you can to take care of yourself and your family.

Sure, in theory I could apply for food stamps, but that would take resources away from people who are truly destitute, who don't have food in the house in the first place. Sure, I've paid into the system and I've "earned" the right to apply for food stamps...but is it moral to take the means to buy food away from others who have no food at all when I have enough food to feed my family for several months? I've "earned" this right by paying into the system, but just because I have this "right," does this mean that it's moral or Biblical for me to do this just because I've "earned" it? There's no way in good conscience I can do this--I'd be like a rich man robbing a bank because he didn't feel rich enough. Meanwhile, more people go hungry because I've taken what I'm entitled to, even though I don't need it and they do. Those of you who have been hungry before know the misery I went through so many years ago. Millions of people in this country are going through that same misery at this moment. What would Jesus do? He'd help feed the hungry, not take food away from them. I might be broke, but I've got food. And I'm in a position to help hungry people. I hope you will find those opportunities as well no matter what you're "entitled" to.