food banks

FOOD BANKS

Guest articles both weekend days.  Wheeeee.
Major Surplus sent me an e-mail claiming I was a preferred customer. Now, since I haven’t ordered from them in a few years I sort of doubt that this is the case. So I’m sure all of my other minions, or at least those that ever ordered from the company with their latest e-mail address, also got this message. For those that didn’t, they are having a great price of wool blankets ( OD Wool Blanket -US Army Style ). $10 each. The link below is for the box of five but there is also singles for sale if you erroneously think you need less than that. I will grant you that long after the collapse legions of sheep will be grazing all available grassland and wool will be available by trade to all. But for now wool blankets will be quite valuable both to yourself and others. Who has enough blankets to sleep through the winter without central heat?

http://www.majorsurplus.com/Geneva-Relief-Emergency-Disaster-Blankets-P13481C2023.aspx

I always have liked Major Surplus. Not as great as Sportsman’s Guide, but still good stuff. You should get wool blankets. Don’t be bitching to me when your little wee-wee is frozen into a solid twig, since I warned you.

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The Arch Druid http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/ had yet another great article this week. Last week he was in rare form, cutting up and actually showing a sense of humor. I think the Mrs. Druid Dude gave it up and he stayed pretty happy. This week he was back to his slightly glum self. Lighten up, dude. You want to get serious, think about rectal warts. That’s serious business. The collapse has been with us almost fifty years, we might as well enjoy it because it is our only reality ( and, no, Virginia, there is no Santa Claus and just because the collapse started that long ago doesn’t mean we have that much longer to go ).

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I don’t know if I covered this before. I’ve told you repeatedly that your local feed store only carries at any one time one bag of wheat per ten thousand population. Perhaps double that for corn. Come an emergency, the first lucky customer cleans out the human food selection. If you want to eat vet medicine and molasses cracked corn, then you might be in luck. And, no, this isn’t BumHump Nebraska we are talking about here but your typical small town store. Not the middle of the country where all the grain is grown, vulnerable to aquifer ( Water Storage: Tanks, Cisterns, Aquifers, and Ponds for Domestic Supply, Fire and Emergency Use--Includes How to Make Ferrocement Water Tanks ) draw down, lack of domestic nitrogen manufacture, lack of shipping and for all I know, all their John Deere tractors getting fried by an EMP ( One Second After ). With rare exceptions, don’t expect your feed store to stockpile much. Inventory is money you can’t spend keeping the sheriffs office from baring the door in bankruptcy proceedings. Everyone is cutting back on inventory. Also, food banks are seeing less inventory. Well, duh, they have a lot more customers. But it isn’t just that. Food banks are getting more inventory than ever, but it is the wrong kind. They have too much of the wrong kind and too little of the other.

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When I was in the food bank down in Carson City, I forecasted a shortage of the canned food drive the second year. Everyone just laughed, chuckle, snort, sneer. That silly Jim, he still thinks the sky is falling ( The Sky Is Falling ). We’ve seen donations increase every year for the two decades we’ve been open. Which makes sense, since the city had been growing like crazy that whole time. The California exodus ( The Mass Exodus From California ). And of course I was right. I can’t remember if it was down ten percent or slightly more, but the decrease was nothing to sneeze at. Now, I know my crystal ball is pretty good. I can see the big picture. I can’t call the timing to save my life. So frankly, I was as surprised as the rest of them when I got that call correct. But it was so obvious. The start of economic calamity is going to take its toll on the ability to be generous. And, sure enough, the trend continues. Now it is the price increase of flour and rice and canned goods. Everyone is as generous as they can be. They are spending as much if not more as before. But each dollar buys less. Shelf stable goods are down. The produce is way down due to the huge increase in fruit and vegetable prices. As well as the cost of steel and energy. Top Ramen ( 101 Things to do with Ramen Noodles ) noodles used to overflow the shelf, until the price went up 50%. Rice donations are way down. Like tuna, a cost increase of 50%. Spaghetti in some cases doubled. Etcetera. Not all our non-perishable food stocks decreased by half, but it has been close.

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What has increased a HUGE amount is perishable goods. Mostly bread and pastries from the bakeries and some dairy. All the grocery stores are donating the crap out of these items. It used to be on the off season ( Christmas is crazy with donations, and we have a spring Boy Scout [ Boy Scouts of America: The Official Handbook for Boys ] can food drive ) I was pretty bored at work. Not a whole lot to do between food boxes. Our boxes used to be primarily to feed the homeless and give the Seniors their monthly government commodity foods. Now, as a lot of households go from two to one wage earner, family food boxes are way up. And, most of my time is now spend desperately trying to process and stock the perishables. A few dozen pounds per store before. Now, it can be literally hundreds per day. The grocery stores have all dramatically increased their donations. It is a 100% retail price tax write-off. Before, they couldn’t be bothered. It all went into the dumpster. Now, they are desperate to save the bottom line and donations look good. I can give out a lot more food, and I do. Each box is three days of food and I went from giving two thousand calories a day to giving at least double that ( half being bread and sweets ). And still, every Friday we give out all the perishables in a mad rush ( food boxes are restricted, once you use your quota you can’t receive more the rest of the year, perishable day is not-come every week and take as much as you want ). The problem with this surplus is that it can’t last more than a week.

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Once grocery stores start going bankrupt, or the maximum donation has been reached ( over X and it no longer decreases your tax bite ), our surplus ( US Military Army Navy Surplus Duffle Duffel Bag ) instantly vanishes. Food banks cannot be counted on to help you in the near future. They started out to feed a small population of homeless and they are geared to that. Yes, they get lots of government money, but their overhead is insane. And they must rely on a surplus of food. As long as waste is possible, a small amount of the population can eat at food banks. But even now, in a time of plenty ( even if it is the wrong kind of food ), they most likely won’t even get you through until Food Stamps show up ( due to the back log from increased claims ). Beware, and stockpile accordingly.
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