The End of the Disaster

My disaster food box is empty except for the cheesy broccoli bake and the challenge is over. Can someone survive a week on the Foodbank’s one person/one week disaster food box? Absolutely! I was never hungry, I even woke up feeling full on some mornings.

However, we all strive to do more than just survive, so here are some tips to help you make the best use possible of the box, so you can be a DISASTER PRO, just like me. Well, I wouldn’t call myself a pro, but I did learn a few things in my week in a box.

In a previous post I already mentioned about cooking 1/3 of each sachets at a time, so you don’t have such significant waste.

If like me you were waiting for a bigger disaster before drinking reconstituted milk, then you can use the milk powder with the oatmeal to give it a richer flavor.

This experiment highlighted the need to grow something – anything – in your own backyard. Some green onions or some parsley or peppers make a night and day change to increasing the palatability of the food. It is well made with all the nutrients you need, but it can get a bit samey without the ability to add something fresh.

 

Before

After

Which do you prefer, the before or the after?

All of these dishes require water to reconstitute, so plan on increasing the amount of water you keep on hand for a disaster. FEMA guidelines call for at least one gallon per person per day, but you should add an extra half gallon per day for each disaster box you have.

Overall I was very impressed with the disaster box. It has an effective shelf life of 25 (which I hope I do too) and a useful tool kit.

Disaster kits can be ordered at:

Buy one and we’ll donate one to a low income family who take part in disaster training so that we can build disaster resiliency across the community.

Final note:

Favorite Item: Spanish Rice.

Least Favorite item: The aforementioned Cheesy Broccoli with rice thing. Though true MacGyver that I am, I managed to extract the dried Broccoli from that sachet and use it in my creamy chicken rice dish.