Category Archives: Ration Challenge

Ration Challenge: Implications for Emergency Preparedness

The rice and lentil soup that I enjoyed most of this week.

The rice and lentil soup that I enjoyed most of this week.

Today, I complete the Ration Challenge. For the past seven days, my diet consisted of the same rations provided to Syrian Refugees in Jordan. This is a fundraiser for Church World Service. You can make your donation at this link:

I did get a bit of variety, such as a can of sardines, a couple of eggs, and a potato.  But for the most part, my “staff of life” was  rice, chickpeas (garbanzo beans), and  lentils.  For the week, I had about three pounds of rice, 3 ounces of dried chickpeas, and 6 ounces of lentils.  Each day, at least one of my meals consisted of a soup with these ingredients, flavored with chicken bouillon.  I also had three cups of flour (which I turned into the flatbread shown above), but most of my carbohydrate needs came from the rice.

My soup was satisfactory, but many other participants were able to come up with much more creative recipes for the ingredients.  You can see many of them in their Facebook group.

One of the focuses of this website is emergency preparedness, and it didn’t escape my notice that these ingredients would form an inexpensive base for emergency food storage.  They do require cooking, but they are inexpensive and have a practically indefinite storage life.  These ingredients fed me relatively well for seven days.  For one year, I would need the following quantities:

At today’s normal supermarket prices, these ingredients would cost about $125.  And chances are, by shopping around and buying larger packages, the cost would be even lower.  (Even though I didn’t add it to my soup recipes, one of my major sources of calories this week was the 12 ounces of cooking oil.  That works out to about five gallons per year, which would add approximately $30 at typical supermarket prices.)    One would not eat well if these were the only things you had to eat, but this relatively small expense would guarantee that one person would have minimal nutrition for a full year.  It seems like a cheap insurance policy.

For those of us in places like North America and Europe, it seems inconceivable that we might become “refugees” and have to worry about finding enough food to eat.  But I suspect that most of the Syrian refugees in camps in Jordan didn’t think so either.  Most of them were probably living middle-class lifestyles at some point.  They weren’t always refugees, just as you and I are not refugees today.

If we take a little bit of time to plan ahead for emergencies, we can help ourselves at the time of some future disaster.  But more importantly, we can be in a position to help our friends and neighbors.

And if you are able, please make a donation to help today’s refugees through Church World Service at this link:



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Ration Challenge: Wednesday-Thursday

PotatoesI’m continuing with the Ration Challenge. For this week, my diet consists of the same rations provided to Syrian Refugees in Jordan. This is a fundraiser for Church World Service. You can make your donation at this link:

Since I have a limited choice of ingredients, it’s understandable that there’s a lot of repetition.  For lunch, I again had soup.  with  rice and chicken bouillon.    On Wednesday, it also contained chickpeas (garbanzo beans), and on Thursday it contained  lentils.

Based upon my fundraising success, I earned a few bonus items.  These included a potato and two eggs.  My dinner both days consisted of fried potatoes and egg, shown above.

RiceCakesI had a total of about 9 cups of rice, and I’ve only used about a cup per day.  I used some of it today to make the rice cakes shown here.  (The recipe can be found on my Sunday post.)

If you are able, please make a donation to Church World Service at this link:



Some links on this site are affiliate links, meaning this site earns a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking on the link.

Ration Challenge: Monday-Tuesday

RationChallengeMon1I’m continuing with the Ration Challenge. For this week, my diet consists of the same rations provided to Syrian Refugees in Jordan. This is a fundraiser for Church World Service. You can make your donation at this link:

My lunch Monday was similar to what I had Sunday, except my soup, shown above, contained  chickpeas (garbanzo beans)  rather than  lentils.  It also contained  rice and chicken bouillon.  I served it with the rice cakes I made Sunday. (which I made yesterday), which contains about 1/4 cup of flour.

RationChallengeMon2Supper consisted of rice and about a third of the can of sardines.  I served it with the flatbreads shown here.  They contained a total of a half cup of flour, a little oil, and water.  I had some rice left over, and I had some both Monday night and Tuesday morning with a little milk.

Lunch Tuesday consisted of the same lentil soup as Sunday, along with a couple of rice cakes.  For dinner Tuesday, I made more flatbread, and made some patties from the remaining sardines (1/3 can), rice, a little flour, and a little oil.  I fried them up, and they were palatable:

RationChallengeTues

 

 

If you are able, please make a donation to Church World Service at this link:



Some links on this site are affiliate links, meaning this site earns a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking on the link.

Ration Challenge Update: Sunday

RationChallenge2Today was my first day of the Ration Challenge. For this week, my diet consists of the same rations provided to Syrian Refugees in Jordan. This is a fundraiser for Church World Service. You can make your donation at this link:

My first meal is shown above.  I made soup from rice, lentils, and chicken bouillon.  I served it with one flatbread (which I made yesterday), which contains about 1/4 cup of flour.  I am allowed one spice for the challenge, and surprisingly, the bouillon qualifies as a “spice.”  It is very helpful, since it will turn just about anything into chicken soup.  As an added bonus, it also provides a few needed calories.

RationChallenge3Since I have more rice than I have flour, I decided to use some of the rice for making a cake, shown here.  Using an electric coffee grinder, I turned the rice into flour and added a little oil.  I added enough water for a doughy consistency, and fried it on the griddle.  It was a little bland, but should go well with soup, sardines, or beans.

Dinner consisted of the rice leftover from lunch, fried with 1/4 can of sardines (and the oil in the sardine can), along with the last piece of flatbread and a glass of (unsweetened) iced tea:

RationChallenge4

To prepare for tomorrow, I made another batch of rice cakes and put them in the refrigerator.  This time, I remembered to add a little salt.   I also put half of my chickpeas (garbanzo beans) in to soak overnight, and I’ll add them to my soup tomorrow.

If you are able, please make a donation to Church World Service at this link:



Some links on this site are affiliate links, meaning this site earns a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking on the link.

Ration Challenge Update: Saturday

RationChallenge1
Here’s the bulk of what I’ll be eating Sunday as I start the one week Ration Challenge. I won’t have time to cook in the morning, so I had to do some pre-cooking.

The flatbread isn’t bad, if I do say so myself. I used one cup of flour, a half cup from the house, and a half cup from my rations. So half is to test today, and the other two breads are for tomorrow.

The rice will mostly go in soup, since I’m allowed to use chicken bouillon as my “spice.” I also started soaking half of my lentils, which I’ll add to the soup as my protein for the day.

Thank you to those who have donated already. If you are able, please consider making a small (or large) donation. I’m about $72 away from getting the luxury of one (1) vegetable to enjoy during the week! So your generous early donations will prevent needless suffering. On the other hand, if you don’t like me and want me to suffer, then wait until next Sunday evening, and make a huge donation then!

Either way, your donation helps Syrian refugees who are going through the same exercise, through no fault of their own.

Donations go to Church World Service, which has an extremely good reputation for making sure donations efficiently go to where they are needed. You can make your donation at this link:



Ration Challenge Update

Here’s an update on the Ration Challenge I will be taking from June 13-19. Please consider donating to Church World Service to assist Syrian refugees. You can read more and donate at this link:

https://www.rationchallengeusa.org/richard-clem



Ration Challenge 2021

For a week starting June 13, I will be taking part in the “Ration Challenge,” a fundraiser for Church World Service (CWS). Funds are designated to feeding Syrian Refugees in Jordan (or wherever the need is greatest).  CWS does not engage in proselytizing, but they are sponsored by numerous Protestant and Catholic denominations.  They are a highly rated charity, as you can see at sites such as Charity Navigator.

For that week, I will be eating essentially the same rations as those refugees, as explained in the video below.

Please consider donating at the following link:

https://www.rationchallengeusa.org/richard-clem

Both small and large donations are greatly appreciated.  I’ll be posting updates during the challenge, here and on Facebook.