What will you do when you get that call?

A few days ago, my best friend got that phone call that everyone dreads.

Your daddy has had a heart attack. The doctors don’t think he’ll make it through the night.

GET. HERE. NOW.

She did what everyone would do. She grabbed enough for a road trip, threw it in the car and took off for a long drive. All she could think about was getting there as fast as possible.

On the way there, she called me to let me know what was going on. Trying to stay calm, she recounted the conversation and what details she knew. She told me later that she didn’t even think about food until she hung up the phone with me, about half-way through her drive. She was headed to a large military town, but it only has one grocery store chain and no health food stores. She has multiple food allergies and doesn’t fare well when exposed to an allergen.

Her daddy did make it through the night. She was having to go to her mom’s house do laundry and had to run by the store to buy basic necessities. She was then faced with the dilemma of having to go to the limited-selection grocery store and find safe food, figure out what to fix without having any of her recipes with her, find safe pots and pans to cook it in at her mom’s house, and keep it safe and segregated in the fridge while a trail of friends and family come through the home. It took time away from being at her daddy’s bedside and provided to be a considerable stress.

Of course, if you have a cast iron stomach and can handle fast food, pot-luck, or hospital cafeteria foods for as long as you need, you’re ok in the food department. But what about clothing? Toiletries? In a rush to get out the door, would you forget something? If you have children, would you have to suffer through their boredom and confusion while you’re going through what can arguably be considered one of the most stressful events in your life?

What would you do? You’re lucky if all of your family lives locally, you can just call a friend and have them swing by your house and drop off whatever you might need and you can run home for food and sleep. But if you have any family out of town, how can you prepare so that you don’t have to worry? Is it possible to just grab-and-go, knowing you have what you need?

You need a bug-out bag.

A bug-out bag is a bag you keep on hand, always packed with in-season clothing that fits and is ready to go with whatever you would need for a few days. It would include travel sizes of all toiletries, changes of clothing, copies of important documents in a water-proof container and food. If you have children, you would also need to include some toys, quiet activities such as coloring books and crayons, extra snacks, diapers and wipes.

We keep a bug-out bag for each member of the family. Each child has a back-pack, and each adult has a rolling suitcase. The food stays in a rubbermaid container. You want something big enough to hold the essentials, but small enough it is easily portable. It should all fit in the back of your vehicle with a little room to spare.

Do keep in mind how far you would need to drive. If your family is within a day’s drive, they understand your allergies, there is a health food store in town or someone has children the same age/size as your kids, you might not need to prepare as much as you would if your family is many hours away, lives rural, there are no cousins, etc… Because some of our family is sixteen hours away in good traffic and live very rurally, we plan for five days with all necessary food, two days of which would be spent in the car where the food could not be heated.

Infant Bug-Out Bag

• More diapers than you’ll think you’ll need
• Wipes
• Blanket
• Nine onesies
• Nine changes of clothing
• Six pair socks
• Two hats
• Nine bibs
• Soft toy
• Extra pair of soft shoes
• Hygiene items- soap, shampoo, whatever you normally use
• Towel and washrag
• If on solids, some shelf-stable foods
• If on formula, two cans of formula, spare bottles, nipples and caps, a bottle brush and a small container of dish soap

Child’s Bug Out Bag

• Coloring book
• Crayons
• Magnadoodle or other quiet drawing toy
• Travel-size games
• Two to three books
• Three pair of underwear
• Wet wipes
• Six snacks
• Small blanket
• Three pair of socks
• Three changes of seasonally appropriate clothing
• Hat and gloves, if in season
• Extra pair of shoes
• Toothbrush
• Toothpaste or toothpowder
• Hairbrush or comb
• Shampoo or other toiletries, if used
• Towel and washrag

Adult Bug Out Bag

• Three or four pair underwear
• Three or four pair socks
• Three or four T-shirts
• Three changes of seasonally appropriate clothing
• Spare pair of shoes
• Hat and gloves, if in season
• Handkerchief
• Three snacks
• Pack of gum or mints
• Spare change
• Toothbrush
• Toothpaste or tooth powder
• Face wash
• Lotion
• Lip balm
• Deodorant
• Bar of soap for the whole family
• Feminine care
• Shampoo or other toiletries
• A small container of laundry detergent
• Towel and washrag
• $50-500 in $1 and $5 bills. Consider if you might need a hotel room extra gas, etc…
• A spare copy of your debit card, or a credit card.
• A book to read
• Cell phone charger or a calling card
• Deck of cards, puzzle book or other entertainment
• Photocopies of all important documents in a waterproof container. A copy of each family member’s birth certificate and social security card, marriage certificate, insurance policies, military discharge papers, death certificates, any medical information and other important papers in a 2-gallon ziplock bag.
• Any prescriptions that anyone in your family needs.

Food

Food is perhaps the most difficult bug-out to plan. You want to keep a minimum of 3 days of easy to fix, ready-to-heat snacks and meals that are acceptable for your way of eating and food intolerances or allergies. In order to accomplish this, I have a mixed strategy. I keep a handfull of baked goods in a designated spot in the freezer, and the lunches and dinners are in quart jars on the shelf. Everything is consumed at room temp or is dump, heat and eat.

• Bottled water
• Six or more home-canned ready to heat meals or other shelf-stable, heat and eat meals.
• Manual can opener, if needed
• A note on top to grab three meal’s worth of muffins or baked goods out of the designated spot in the freezer.
• Disposable plates, napkins, forks, spoons, bowls and cups
• A saucepan in which to heat the meals
• A small container of coconut oil
• A few packets of stevia
• A small shaker of sea salt
• A few empty freezer bags in quart and gallon size
• Spare trash bags or plastic bags
• Comfort food- some Yummy Earth lollipops or hard candy, a little dark chocolate
• Six snacks for each member of the family
  • Lara Bars
  • Funky Monkey
  • Pemmican
  • Justin’s Nut Butter in the little squeeze packs
  • One small box of acceptable cookies, such as Enjoy Life.

Last Minute List

I have a last minute list that sits on top of my BOBs. It contains a list of things to do IF I have a few minutes before we must walk out the door.

• Grab the breakfast foods out of the freezer. Grab a couple of packs of frozen lunch meat to eat during the drive. Grab some spare frozen meals/snacks/whatever is handy and throw it all in a cooler. Grab any fruit in the house and throw it in a bag.
• Have each child get their pillow, favorite stuffed animal or security object, some extra clothes and some small toys for the car. Grab their schoolwork.
• Grab mine and hubby’s pillows, extra blankets if needed.
• Grab dress clothes, shoes and my make-up bag if it’s possible we might have to attend a funeral.
• Make sure everyone uses the bathroom before getting in the car.
• Shut down computers and unplug everything.
• Grab the camera and video camera.
• Clean cat box, give cat extra food and water, refill chicken feeders and waterers in case the designated person can’t come until tomorrow night.
• Start dishwasher if there are any dirty dishes in it.
• Put all ferments into the fridge.
• Take out trash.
• Re-set thermostat and hot water heater to vacation setting.
• Grab the kid’s DVD case, any other electronic devices you use.

Once on the Road

• Call your and your husband’s jobs to let them know what is going on.
• Call the person who you have pre-arranged to care for your animals and pick up the paper/mail to let them know you need help.
• Call family with an approximate arrival time.
• Call the family that isn’t involved and let them know where you are and what is going on.

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KerryAnn Foster runs Cooking Traditional Foods, the longest running Traditional Foods Menu Mailer on the internet. KerryAnn has over nine years of traditional foods experience and is a former Weston A. Price Foundation chapter leader. Founded in 2005, CTF helps you feed your family nourishing foods they will love. Each mailer contains one soup, five dinners, one breakfast, on dessert and extras. You can learn more about our Menu Mailers at the CTF website. For a free sample Menu Mailer, join our mailing list. You can also join our forum to chat with other traditional foodists and learn more.