I have a suggestion. The people of Venezuela devastated by floods and mudslides are in desperate need of assistance. Why not take donate some food, clothing, or money for those people who are in real need of this? And get a tax deduction at the same time.

Catholic Relief Services http://www.catholicrelief.org/ , the Red Cross would be good organizations to support in this effort.

-- Martin (beckmn1@yahoo.com), January 04, 2000

Answers

Martin, the Red Cross doesn't want food and clothing because it's too costly to ship it. They want the $$$$. However, people here are dollared out, and I for one, am not ready to give up my Y2K stash and supplies and probably never will. I remember back a couple years ago when there was severe flooding in Guatamela. People brought food, clothing, etc., to a warehouse in San Francisco. As far as I know, the warehouse and everything in it is still sitting there because there were no trucks or money to ship it down there. I'm also leery of giving money to causes, I have no way of knowing that it will be used for the requested cause. I've been burned too many times before.

-- ~~~~ (~~~~@~~~.xcom), January 04, 2000.

I don't understand the rush to donate...If people purchased sensibly, then the food is there for use by their immediate family...or have the neighbors in for a dinner or two. I give freely to charities, but the things I purchased will be used. I didn't buy MRE's or a years supply of wheat. I purchased normally used foods, with a sensibly supply of wheat, rice, beans, which are usual to our diet.

-- Kenin Marble (kenin17@yahoo.com), January 04, 2000.

Exactly Kenin. I don't understand it either. Why do the people that like to hang out in grocery stores buying meals as need (several times per week) want us to act foolishly like them?

I for one prefer to go to my pantry and plan dinners for the week instead of wasting 3-4 hours a week picking up stuff from the stores "as immediately needed". I have lived in the country for 40 years and never have understood the "just in time" attitudes people have adopted, not only in their business place, but home living as well. I think that the Red Cross thinks that if you aren't going to eat that can of beans this week, well, you don't really need it anyway, huh?

gosh, people baffle me.

-- karen (karen@karen.karen), January 04, 2000.

You are right about these foreign relief services not necessarily wanting to ship food and clothing ... but local organization such as the Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, Homeless Shelters, and others would. Let's face it, noone actually needs 250 pounds of beans and rice in their home. Yes an individual might end up using it in the next year or two, but there are some truly needy people that could benefit from it now.

Some people stocked up with enough stuff to last a long long time. I know people that bought hundreds of goats, cattle, chicken, foodstock, silver and silverware, etc. in preparation of a civil disaster and government takeover that didn't and won't happen.

As far as what charitable organizations are good in putting your money to work where you want it, Catholic Relief Services uses less than 10% of contributions for administration, marketing, etc., so that more than 90% goes directly to relief programs and it rates excellent with watchdog organizations. You can designate where you would like your money to go .... such as Venezuela, Sudan, East Timor, Turkey, etc.

I don't know the efficiency of the Red Cross. Others organizations are good as well.

-- Martin (beckmn1@yahoo.com), January 04, 2000.

Martin, you obviously have a good heart and mean well. However, if you will read any number of posts in the past 3 days, and especially the one a dozen or so threads down entitled "A.P....." posted by John Whitley, you will see why it is essential for prepared people to stay just that way in order to face what still surely lies ahead. The stock market is very shakey, the glitches that will affect people's incomes and supply chains haven't had time to surface yet, and what happened to the terrorist threats?

Many people like me sacrificed and are in debt in order to provide ahead for ourselves what we believe we may not be able to provide shortly down the road. Wealthy philanthropists can best donate their excess moneys, rather than average Americans parting with their family's security.

-- Elaine Seavey (Gods1sheep@aol.com), January 04, 2000.

Kenin, Karen and Elaine,

I hear you, sisters! While did buy additional items/quantities for our pantry/larder (most of what was bought was 'rounding it out' -- we bought things in quantity that we normally do not buy more than a couple of at a time, ie., comfort foods), I am a disciple of the "Pantry Principle". And what I hope folks who hold onto their preps will find out is that it saves a ton of money in the short and long runs, too...not to mention that it's just so dang nice not to have to run to the store every other day!

But what I can't understand is how relief organizations promote the preparedness principle out of one side of the mouth, and now are wanting prepped folks to give it away....what gives? It's either smart to be prepared, or it isn't, you just can't have it both ways. What if.....there was a tornado that struck your town (which, BTW, did happen yesterday in several parts of the midwest). Wouldn't you rather be prepared for ANY problem (disaster, econimic downturn, personal illness, etc.)? I know we sure do in our home, and always have.

Martin, I believe your motives are nothing short of honorable, and you have made this suggestion with the purest of intentions, but I believe there are other ways to help ones fellow man without putting ones own security/peace of mind at risk. I donate money on a regular basis to a church (no, not my own) that does relief work, and will do that again.

-- Wilferd (WilferdW@aol.com), January 04, 2000.

I didn't buy MRE's or a years supply of wheat. I purchased normally used foods, with a sensibly supply of wheat, rice, beans, which are usual to our diet.

n Kenin Marble (kenin17@yahoo.com), January 04, 2000.

This is the proper way to start a food storage program. Buy those foods that store well that you and your family ordinarily eat and then actually eat the foods you bought. No surplus there to give away unless you change your planning and decide to prepare for a shorter period of time. Then you may have a surplus which can be given to charity or simply absorbed into your house's normal consumption and not replaced.

I'm taking Martin's follow up post below somewhat out of order to better make a couple of points here.

Some people stocked up with enough stuff to last a long long time. I know people that bought hundreds of goats, cattle, chicken, foodstock, silver and silverware, etc. in preparation of a civil disaster and government takeover that didn't and won't happen.

If these folks bought all of these things without the intention of incorporating them into their lifestyle then their unneeded preps will almost certainly be surplus and probably would make a nice charitable contribution. I've corresponded with a few (just a few) that did go out and buy hundreds of pounds of wheat, livestock, in some cases land, a lot of manually operated equipment, hundreds of cans of food and on and on without actually planning to use any of them unless they were forced to in a crisis. That is a fool's game which would have made them sorry if and when but some do it. Most that I know who went big time into these kinds of preps are making them part of the way they intend to live in the future and those preps won't be surplus at all. Except for canned goods and bulk staples like rice, sugar, flour and so on those kinds of preps aren't going to be of much use to charitable organizations. It's hardly worthwhile to ship less than ship load quantities of wheat to Africa and what is the Red Cross going to do with wheat here in the States?

You are right about these foreign relief services not necessarily wanting to ship food and clothing ... but local organization such as the Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, Homeless Shelters, and others would.

I endorse donating to these organizations. I've sent a number of people I've met over the years to one or the other of them for help and they fill a real need in every city in the U.S. Even if you don't have surplus preps that you're not going to use I think it's a good idea to make a donation. I just don't think donating your food storage to them is a good idea unless you've got a lot of food needing to be rotated out of storage that you're not going to be able to eat before it goes bad. Probably a bit early for most folks to be at this point yet since most won't have acquired their stored foods more than a year ago.

I can see how a person with a good food storage program could end up with more food than they'd be able to eat because it's fairly common for a person or family to put away food for other people who aren't involved in the preparedness program. If a family of four is storing food for an extended family of ten then they're going to have a lot of food needing used up when it's time to take it out of storage.

Let's face it, noone actually needs 250 pounds of beans and rice in their home. Yes an ndividual might end up using it in the next year or two, but there are some truly needy people that could benefit from it now.

n Martin (beckmn1@yahoo.com), January 04, 2000.

Here is the only point you make that I vigorously disagree with. Who are you or anyone else to decide how much food I need to keep on hand? This kind of thinking leads to all kinds of foolishness and is a bad tact to take to try to persuade folks who spent their money on that food. It's their business and not anyone elses.

However ill advised it was for them to do it there are people who went out and bought up a lot of storable foods they do not usually eat and have no intention of consuming unless forced to do so. Those folks certainly should donate that food to charitable organizations who will use the food while it's still wholesome. Hopefully it'll serve as a lesson to them about that kind of poor planning. ........Alan.

The Prudent Food Storage FAQ, v3.5

http://www.providenceco-op.com

-- A.T. Hagan (athagan@netscape.net), January 04, 2000.

I don't know if anyone else has encountered this problem, but several years ago, I had some outdated storage food that I donated to a local church that handles people in need. The dried beans and rice are hard to work with, because this facility just distributes it to the needy people, and doesn't cook it for them. Most people around here, apparently, don't know what to do with dried beans or rice, because they COMPLAINED about it.

If it isn't in a can, or a handy foil pouch, these people, by and large, have NO IDEA how to prepare it.

Look what "progress" has done to these people...sad.

I have been a preparedness minded person for years, and Y2k or not, I'll keep my stores. Something will come up, and I'll eventually use the stores and replace them.

-- Bill (billclo@msgbox.com), January 05, 2000.

I think some of you are being a bit hard on Martin.

What he suggested was that since many of us have pantries full of stuff that we probably won't be using immediately, it gives us an *opportunity* to share with others.

I didn't see any indication that he thinks it's for him to decide how much we *need* -- ISTM he was simply suggesting that we don't need it immediately, we have it on hand, and others could use it -- it's a good opportunity to donate.

The "are there no workhouses" response is rather disappointing, IMVHO.

-- Somebody (jdworth1@velocity.net), January 05, 2000.