2 months of food: $1,200; Emergency-ready pantry: Priceless

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2 months of food: $1,200; Emergency-ready pantry: Priceless

By KEVIN DARST

LOVELAND - In a cool, dry basement room, shelves full of canned food

and hulking bags of flour and other staples act as Suzy Price's

insurance policy.

It's a policy against a blizzard, flood, pandemic flu, even job loss.

" A couple of times a year, I'll come down and evaluate it and see

what we've used, " said Price, who is Mormon.

The Church of Latter-day Saints advocates what it calls " provident

living, " or self-reliance, to protect against disaster.

As federal, state and local health officials urge America to

stockpile two weeks' to two months' worth of food, medical supplies

and emergency items in case of a flu pandemic, perhaps one caused by

the H5N1 strain of bird flu, experts say the public can learn from

people like Price.

She didn't outfit herself and her family in a day or a week or a

month. She amassed what she estimates to be at least a year and a

half of food supply over the course of years, buying 10 cans of cream

of mushroom soup when it was on sale or a couple extra jars of peanut

butter when the price was too good to pass up.

She buys only items her family eats anyway - tuna, peanut butter,

canned peaches, cereal - and uses the oldest ones before they go bad,

then replaces those with fresher products.

The government's http://pandemicflu.gov Web site urges families to

stock two weeks of emergency items. Others, including Larimer

County's chief health official, suggest two months of supplies.

Some say supply lines could be cut or slowed during a pandemic as

workers and truckers get sick; others say grocery stores could remain

stocked during a flu pandemic, but people might not want to risk

going out.

But pinning down how much food a two-week or two-month supply really

is can be tough. It can also be an expensive stockpile to create in

one trip to the store, not to mention an improbable one if hordes of

others are trying to do the same.

For a better idea of how much food a family would need for two weeks

or two months and how much it would cost, the Coloradoan built a

day's worth of meals using only nonperishable food that could be

prepared without water or heat. The result was a 1,800-calorie-per-

day diet that includes snacks of peanut butter and Powerbars to

generate enough calories.

The canned food and drinks in the Coloradoan's diet would cost about

$20 per day for a family of four, assuming an average of 1,800

calories per person.

That's about $280 for two weeks, or $1,200 for two months, of canned

or other food that needs no preparation.

That's more than many families can afford, which is why experts

recommend a little-by-little approach.

Dr. Adrienne LeBailly, director of the Larimer County Department of

Health and Environment, suggested families buy what they can, when

they can. She compared the cost of stocking up to that of a family

insurance policy.

" How much insurance do you want to buy for yourself and for your

family? " she said.

Preparedness companies, including the Utah-based Nitro-Pak, offer

emergency packs with enough food to last anywhere from three days to

a year.

Nitro-Pak's Ultimate-Pak Food Reserve, which the company says is

enough food for four people for three months or one person for a

year, costs about $4,000.

The company says there's a three- to five-week delay on food orders

because of bird flu worries.

Local officials say little help will come from federal or state

agencies during a pandemic.

" Family preparedness, individual preparedness are the foundation for

community preparation, " said Blois, director of Fort

Emergency Management.

" You don't have to dump out the $1,200 to do it all at once. It's

like savings. You put a little in the bank and it adds up. "

With the thousands of dollars of canned food in Price's basement, her

most important investment might be in the one item the government

also suggests not to get caught without — a can opener.

" I have five, " Price said.

http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?

AID=/20060609/NEWS01/606090306/1002

Originally published June 9, 2006