More Chaos At The Cannery

In case you haven't tried to contact the cannery lately, here's what's been going on. They have been getting hit with waves of people coming in and buying up all they have in stock for a few months now! I called this morning to see if they had any rice in stock and they told me they didn't have any grains - wheat, rice, oats, nor any of the pre-packaged kits the church is starting to sell. They didn't even have cans to can at home! In the same breath, the sister missionary told me a truck had just come in and that she wasn't sure what exactly was on it. I thought, I'd go down and just see what was in, hoping that maybe I'd get lucky..... and I did. I'll tell you though, I walked in to stand in a line of at least 3 dozen people and all their non-school age kids (as well as my own) and it was chaotic! After an hour, I finally was able to fill my order and they are in fact, rationing. Everyone was only allowed to purchase 6 bags maximum of dried goods (to take home and can yourself). And of those six bags, you could only buy 2 bags of each product, maximum (eg. 2 bags beans, 2 bags oats, 2 bags red wheat)! The sister missionary there told me that the cannery is no longer buying white wheat until the next harvest because white wheat is not a product the church grows and the prices are so high. The church grows red wheat on their farm land in Montana and they will continue to supply that.

I speculate that today's surge at the cannery was probably fueled by this article on the front page of the Daily Herald: "Economy Shakes World Food Suppply" http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/264091/36/
It's actually an article from the Washington Post that has been published in our local paper.

One last thing - they had a new sheet/handout at the cannery I picked up and I'll list the information verbatum:

Do You REALLY Have A Year's Supply?

Just how big is a Year's Supply of food? As explained on the previous page, our Church is suggesting the following minimums for each adult:

400 lbs. Grains (17.5 oz./day)

60 lbs. Beans (2.6 oz./ day)

10 Quarts Cooking Oil (0.87 oz./day)

60 lbs. Honey (2.63 oz./day)

8 lbs. Salt (0.35oz/day)

16 lbs. Powdered Milk (0.7 oz./day)

So, just how much is this?

Two 5 gallon buckets will hold about 75 lbs. of wheat, rice or other grains. This means you need 11 buckets of grain for each person in your family.

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If you store all your grains in #10 cans.............

Wheat, Rice, Corn, etc...

You would need 64 cans or 10.5 cases per person.

Pasta

You would need 32 cans or 5.25 cases per person.

Rolled Oats

These are lighter but bulkier, so they require more storage containers and space. You would need 124 cans or 21 cases per person.

Beans

1 25 lb bag of beans will just about fit in a single 5 gallon bucket, with a little space leftover, so 2 buckets would hold a one person supply, or 12-13 #10 cans (about 2 cases).

Daily Food

Dividing 400 obs. by 356 days equals out to 1.09589 lbs, or just over 1 lb. of grain per person, per day. That is approximately 2 cups of unground grain to cover your breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Dividing 60 lbs. by 365, this works out to 0.16 lbs. of beans per day, or 2.6 oz - approximately 3/4 cup.

The other foods listed would also need to be used in limited amounts.

This is not much food, folks. Get the basics, then immediately begin to ass more kinds of grain, soup mix, canned and/or dehydrated vegetables and fruit, etc. to add variety and provide more than the minimal survival diet.

As an example, the minimum recommended amount of grain, when ground and prepared will yield about 6 small biscuits or a plate full of pancakes. It is enough to keep you alive, but a far cry from being satisfied and not hungry.