***UPDATE: Thanks to all who took part in our THRIVE Cookbook poll! The feedback you provided has been very helpful so far. At this time, we’ve removed the poll from our website and are evaluating the responses. Keep an eye out for the THRIVE Cookbook to make its debut!***

Many of you have enjoyed having resources like our Recipes section and the Shelf Reliance YouTube channel to find fresh ideas for using your THRIVE food storage in everyday meals. We’re excited to announce that our latest addition, the THRIVE Cookbook, is well on its way. The newest member of the Shelf Reliance family, Kelsey Nixon, is developing new recipes and tips every day, all to help you make delicious, healthy, convenient meals for your family!

As we’ve been working on this cookbook, several questions have come to mind. Our goal is to make a resource that’s helpful and worthwhile for you, and to do that, we need your help! We’ve created a short poll of just 13 questions (all of which are optional), and we’d love to get your feedback. You can participate in the poll by clicking here [editor's note: as indicated above, this poll has been closed and the responses were great!]. We appreciate your thoughts and your time. Have a great day, and be looking for our new THRIVE Cookbook in the coming months!

Last Thursday, the Shelf Reliance blog gave some tips about the preparedness needs of senior citizens. This week, we’ll be switching gears entirely to discuss the measures you can take to prepare when your family includes infants and young children. Obviously, the food and transportation needs of little ones are quite different from those of adults, so there’s a lot to consider. These suggestions are just a starting place, but they should give you a good idea of the steps you’ll want to take as you plan for your own family’s particular needs.

In many ways, children are much more vulnerable to the dangers of emergency situations. Their small bodies require them to breathe more times per minute than adults do, making them particularly susceptible to harmful biological and chemical agents. Young kids are also more likely to suffer from dehydration and have more complications after blood loss. Physiological factors aside, a child’s underdeveloped motor skills and cognitive abilities may very well make it difficult to recognize dangerous situations and respond to them appropriately. As in almost all other areas of life, a child is dependent upon his/her caregivers for help when an emergency takes place.

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Emergency preparedness is an important topic for the whole family, but on some days, the mere suggestion of anything that involves cooperation or planning will lead to eye-rolling and temper tantrums from kids. If you’re looking for ways to help your kids feel more excited about the prospect of 72-hour kits and first aid, you’ll need all the help you can get! Here are a few suggestions of activities that are sure to make your family time as productive and fun as possible.

- Conduct scavenger hunts around the house, neighborhood, or classroom for items that would be included in an emergency kit, such as a flashlight, batteries, radio, canned food, water, toilet paper, rain gear, etc. You can set up specific items ahead of time or simply ask the children to spread out and bring back things they think would be important. As everyone reports back with their items, have the kids explain why their items would be necessary.

- Discuss different emergency settings (church, bedrooms, school, a friend’s house, etc.) and how to be safe in all of those places. Have children write and illustrate a storybook to tell how to prepare for these kinds of emergency situations. This would be a great classroom activity to encourage creativity and teamwork.

- Let your kids draw simple artwork that will decorate the outside of an emergency kit. They’ll love knowing that they helped and added something of their very own to the family kit.

- Participate in a role-playing game where the adult acts as the child and the child acts as the adult. Younger children especially love to act silly and feel like they’re given a special role, and this kind of game is also a great way to check on how well your children are taking in the preparedness information. The adult can ask questions such as What do we do if a tornado comes? or Where do we keep our emergency kit? and allow the child to answer.

- Talk about emergencies and extreme survival situations in the books that your older children have read. If they’re having a hard time thinking of examples, here are some possible books to recommend:

• Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
• Life of Pi by Yann Martel
• Number The Stars by Lois Lowry
• Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell
• From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

- Decide to make an emergency kit for a family in need, perhaps as a school or church project. Think carefully about all the items this family may need based on family size, the ages of the family members, any pets they have, etc.

- Make TV commercials at home! Set up a video camera and have family members get in on the action by talking about emergency preparedness. This activity can get increasingly over-the-top, but it’s a great way to teach and learn with spirit. You can even sit down as a family and watch the video later; that will give you the chance to compliment each other’s acting skills and make preparedness-related suggestions.

- Tour a fire department or another emergency service provider location.

- For children who are starting to drive, make an auto emergency kit that includes preparedness items along with things to make road trips a little more fun.

How do your kids like emergency preparedness? Have any helpful tips to share with other parents? Leave a comment below!

When I think of preparing for an emergency, I typically think of first aid kits, flashlights, and food storage. In the aftermath of a disaster, it’s hard to imagine that money matters will be a top priority, but as things begin to settle down and get back to normal, you may find that the financial side of things is a significant source of stress and concern. The government might be there to help if the disaster is serious enough, but even if you can secure a little assistance from Uncle Sam, this assistance typically comes in the form of loans that must be paid back (with interest). Any grants you receive would only be enough to meet immediate needs, not to repair or recover your possessions. The good news is that, as always, you can make things easier on yourself and your family by planning ahead.

Create a financial disaster recovery kit by gathering the following items together and storing them in a safe location, whether it be a home safe or a portable, waterproof bag (such as these options from Shelf Reliance).

• Legal Documents: birth certificates, marriage licenses, divorce papers, child custody papers, passports, driver’s licenses, social security cards, naturalization papers and residency documents, military/veteran’s papers, powers of attorney (including healthcare powers of attorney), will or trust documents
• Medical Information: records of past procedures, allergies, pre-existing conditions
• Financial Documents: cash (as ATM or bank services may be disrupted), bank statements, insurance policies, credit card numbers, a list of phone numbers for financial institutions and credit card companies where you have accounts
• Residential Items: an inventory of household possessions, appraisals of valuable items (jewelry, art, antiques, heirlooms), home improvement records, deeds/titles and other ownership records for property such as homes and automobiles
• Critical Computer Files: multiple backup copies of important documents from your personal and work computers
• Contact Information: a list of names, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of family members, friends, business contacts, and emergency assistance agencies in your area, such as the Red Cross

*Information taken from 2008 pamphlet “Putting Down Roots in Earthquake Country: Your Handbook for Earthquakes in Utah,” distributed by the Utah Seismic Safety Commission. This report and any updates are available at:

http://geology.utah.gov/online/pdf/eq_handbook.pdf