Recruiting Your Family, Friends, or Community To Become Prepared

By Jalapeno Gal77 -via APN

We often hear people say: “get your family and friends involved in preparedness”, but that is much easier said than done isn’t it?  When your just learning, or even if your an expert, getting others to see your point of view isn’t always easy to do.  For quite some time now, I have wanted to involve our community in food storage and being prepared with out coming off as “the crazy lady” of the neighborhood.  So finally, today, I sat down and wrote a letter to stick in peoples mailboxes in our neighborhood.  After writing it, I thought to myself, this would be a great outline for others to use.  So today I am posting my copy to you all, in hopes you can adjust it to your needs and help get your family, friends or community involved in becoming prepared to survive hard times!  I hope you can get some use out of this.



During times of plenty, prepare for times of need.

Hello Neighbors,

I will try to keep this short and sweet for you.  I am writing to tell you about home preparedness in a times such as job loss, natural disasters, or economical collapse.  This letter is about long term food storage.  We all know how hard times can be and how so many people are losing their jobs.  That is why long term food storage is important for you and your family.  A lot of people feel it is silly to store up food for hard times, but if you think about it, even wild animals do it.

I assure you it isn’t silly at all.  A woman I know say’s, “During times of plenty, prepare for times of need.”  It makes perfect sense to me.  Most of us have children, and the thought of job loss is very scary and usually the first thought (besides I’m going to lose my home) if how will I feed my kids in hard times?  Food storage is a simple answer, and will make you feel more secure about hard times, because it is one less thing to worry about should something like, job loss, disability, war or any number of things that could happen rendering you unable to work.  It will also allow your money to pay the rent and utilities verses lining the stores pocket with money you need to keep your home.
I plead with you, please start your own food storage pantry, closet, room, or whatever space suits you.  You won’t regret it in the long run.  There are many ways to start doing this.  When you go to buy something at the store, by an extra can or two to put back in that closet and slowly build up.  Buy things that have long shelf life such as instant potatoes, pancake mix, canned items and meals, powdered soups etc…things you like.  (We love Sam’s.)  You can join other neighbors and buy together in bulk and save even more money!

If you worry about things sitting too long, then come up with a system to rotate your items when you purchase more of it, so you use your older items first.  Learn how to can fruits, vegetables, and meats.  Canned items usually last 10 + years.  Grow a garden.  Food is not the only thing you can store, you can store, laundry soap, cleaning supplies, toiletries, and many other things.  Do some homework, go online and learn how to do this in a way that is good for you.  Think about it like this:  if you never have to use it because you never lose your job then GREAT!  But what about when you retire and are living on social security?  Would you rather your money go towards food all the time, or enjoying retirement?

During times of plenty, prepare for times of need!  Give yourself less to worry about and more security knowing you’re taking care of your family should anything happen.  Also, remember that in hard times, strength comes in numbers, go introduce yourself to your neighbors and people in the neighborhood. You won’t regret it!

~ Your friendly neighbor

This is what I typed up to try and get our community to help themselves and each other.  We printed up about 50 copies, folded them in half and wrote on the outside, ” From a concerned neighbor, please read.” (Did you notice I never used my name? This is to ensure your safety.)  My hopes are that this could possibly help you get your neighbors more involved in preparedness  as well.  If not, then too bad for them, at least you tried.  If even one person takes this as a calling or takes it to heart, then our jobs are done.

Keepin It Spicy,
Jalapeño Gal