How much is enough?
 

Rather than hijack someone else's thread, I thought I would start this one up with something that RichG said.

Rich, I DO COMMEND the idea. Really.

At what point do you STOP giving away or bartering away your stuff?

Yes, it does depend on what TYPE of situation we are in. How many people are effected (left over). Where you live. How well you are set up. How many people you are supporting.

SO, how much is enough? Are you going to get enough to feed just you and yours. How about that elderly neighbor lady you've helped for the past ten years and consider her a relative? What about the starving family at your door (ala RichG's comment)?

When do you draw the line? And I'm not talking about shooting/killing people. Low profile will be THE wave of the future if SHTF, if you know what I mean.

If the 'event' is large enough to effect the whole USA (which basically means the world - as the USA is the economic engine for the rest of the world) and you know it will be months, years or perhaps NEVER before we rise from the ashes like the Phoenix bird.

Who do you turn away? Everyone? NO ONE? Just curious on everyone's thoughts?

Besides, we only have a couple gross of toilet paper. Hey Ponce, can we come live with you if we bring ALL our stuff, including our TP?

Re: How much is enough?
 

As you point out, it is impossible to know without knowing the scale of the problem.

My prep to share is oriented toward helping others feed themselves - extra open pollinated garden seed and hunting ammo, for example. For a single household to try to store enough food to feed many families for long - well, few have that kind of space. You could store some staples to barter or share, but even food for 1 family for 1 year starts taking up space fast.

So I tend to think of our food prep as taking us off the soup kitchen, care package load on our community, which frees resources for others hopefully, and helping others provide for themselves as my contributory part, because it is compact and potentially is a lot more food.

There are so many variables though. My town has a good bit of farner's market going already, mostly decent sized yards, and could be feeding itself pretty quickly. Huge, dense, paved over cities are a whole other thing.

Re: How much is enough?
 

Well for starters you don't give away food untill you have a second source of food. Even then you want to keep some back up incase that source disappears, and it needs to last long enough untill you find another source.

Re: How much is enough?
 

alric,
THAT is an excellent answer. I like it and have stored it for future usage. You don't mind if I 'steal' that idea in case anyone else asks me?

Re: How much is enough?
 

Go ahead. We don't want anyone to starve because their selling food and have no way to replace it heh.