Extreme Food Storage Makeover: The "E" Family

Remember way back in April, when we had our

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In case you weren’t around we had 3 big surprises for our readers. The surprises were a great way to share and give back to so many of you great readers. The surprises included some great FREE stuff, and ways for you all to help some families.

Today, we’re following up with our 2nd Surprise. The Extreme Food Storage Makeover: Helping Families in Need. We had 4 main families that were chosen, each having different reasons why this makeover would be great for them. Some were financial, others were just in need of some direction and help. Since you the readers are the ones who raised the money through a percentage of your purchases at our Shelf Reliance store that month, we thought you’d like to know how it all turned out. We’ll be introducing the next family in a couple weeks so stay tuned.

INTRODUCING THE “E” Family

This is the information the nominator sent us about the “E’ family.

About the Family:
I met Cathy through a forum of “homestead” type moms. I always appreciated her tips on how to be more frugal (many of the moms struggle with making ends meet) and more “natural”. One week we were completely out of money, even for groceries, and I was asking for meal ideas for the items I had in my pantry. Cathy privately messaged me to say that she didn’t have any money to send or any way to help except to send me a few coupons for free cans of tuna. And she did. That make such an impact on me… we’d never met, and yet this lady who struggles with making ends meet found a way to help me.

Earl, her husband, is in the Army and they are living in Oklahoma. He has been deployed several times during their marriage. He’s missed many of their 5 children’s birthdays. Cathy has learned to do it ALL by herself. Their children are 10, 7, 4, 3, and 1. We did get to meet once a few years ago while she was on her way to see her parents, and we had a lovely 2 days together visiting and letting our kids get to know each other, etc.

She has been such an example to me of a mom that has had to do it all herself, and then adjust back to releasing some of the “reins” of responsibility back to her husband when he is back home. Everything I hear of Earl is that he’s a godly man and a good husband and daddy. I’ve not had the chance to meet him yet.

Why this Family:
Earl and Cathy have been working VERY hard to eliminate debt and with their military pay, it’s sometimes a struggle for them to just meet day-to-day needs while paying off debt.

Cathy has made preparedness a priority, but I know she has a long way to go with such a big family. She gardens, has chickens, etc., to supplement their food supply. She’s been struggling with health issues for years – autoimmune disease, and most recently a diagnosis of cancer (treatable and hopefully curable, but cancer, nonetheless).

Just 2 days ago, they were watching the reports of a huge grass fire that had caused the evacuation of several neighborhoods and destroyed several homes near them. Earl was gone, and they were ready to evacuate if necessary. Thankfully, the fires were contained and they were able to stay put. She knows the importance of being ready to grab kids and supplies and get out of danger living in a fire- and tornado- prone area.

I would love to see this precious family benefit from some help by getting an “Extreme Food Storage Makeover”. It would be such a blessing to them, and I am THRILLED to be able to nominate them!

WHAT WE SENT THE FAMILY

After speaking with Cathy, and talking about what would be most helpful we chose a variety of products for the family. Some of the foods were new to the family, while others were some good staples to have in your food storage. Here’s a list of what we sent the family:

Check out the “E” families pantry with the THRIVE food inside 🙂

A NOTE FROM THE FAMILY:

We are so honored and thankful to have been chosen for this Extreme Makeover! We have been trying to work on this bit by bit but have not been very organized with it before…the ideas from your blog are helping tremendously with that. We’ve been working on our 3-month food storage plan and inventory and have been picking up a few items each time we shop. It’s been wonderful to receive this boost with the dehydrated and freeze-dried food items, as well as the wing-stoves, water container and solar battery charger. Thank you so much for this practical help and all the valuable information you provide!