Emergency Preparedness Night- Oct20th

Canning
-learned that fruit is the easiest to can
-you don't need any fancy machines, just a tall pot
-Set jars on lids inside the pot to keep them from directly touching the bottom
-peel fruit (sometimes optional), cut up, cook up, throw in jars, boil for awhile (pears were 25 mins), done.
-want to start an email group for "i just saw a great deal on ____" to help people increase their food storage
-What's the point of canning?  If you eat a lot of (peaches/applesauce) and find them for, say, 19 cents a pound (or free from a friend/family orchard), you'll save a ton of money by buying fresh produce super cheap and canning it for later use.

Food Storage
http://www.providentliving.org/ is the church's website to look for prices on food storage, and suggestions on amts.
-church could "borrow" the can sealer if people wanted to meet at someone's house to seal a bunch of dried goods in those big #10 cans
-3 months worth (not a year) is the goal for students
-buy extra of what you already eat and figure out a way to keep rotating it.
-Most canned goods already last about 2 yrs.
-Kathy's the representative in our ward
-Most bakeries will give you free 5 Gal. buckets since they throw them away after using up all the contents (mostly icing)

72-Hr Kits
-Find some sort of bag to collect it in (IKEA bag, old backpack, bag from DI, hiking pack, etc)
-collect things from around the house
-store in ziplocks to squish out air and keep dry (clothes too).
-buying MREs (Meals-Ready-to-Eat) from some sort of online supplier can eliminate the need for a great handful of items otherwise needed to open, cook, prepare, eat off of, and store food.
-store impt documents, phone numbers, credit info
-store money in small increments and a roll of quarters.

Scanned in pictures of awesome lists from an old BYU Emergency Preparedness Seminar to come.
COMMENT with other great ideas you've heard about from other wards, other schools, other people. BRING IT!!

Here We Go A Canning!

We had a really good turn out on Saturday morning for the ward canning activity. For many it was the first time at the cannery. As soon as we got there, we just jumped right in and started canning away. It went surprisingly well for how many people there were. Everyone made themselves busy and worked together. Even the kids were working away. It was a really good time and we ended up canning quite a bit. In fact, we canned more than we needed, but that was helpful for the people who were coming in after us. We did most of the work for them. I took a bunch of pictures that turned out really great, but I was unaware that you're not allowed to take pictures inside the cannery. It's a liability thing. So I have a few from the morning of us packing up all the goods. It was nice to see so many different families represented. Teri mentioned that we will still do a canning activity where we check out the machines and bring them here for those of you who have your own stuff you need to can, so hang on and hopefully that will happen soon. Here are some pictures.