Being prepared may mean eating 25-year-old food

A group of Tribal members, Tribal Elders and staff gathered at the Elders Activity Center on Monday, Aug. 1, for a lunch of chicken salad – chicken salad that may have been made in 1991.

Nutrition Program Manager Kristy DeLoe said she found out about Thrive Life meals from former Emergency Operations Coordinator Jamie Baxter and that she wanted to be prepared as a Tribe for any type of emergency that might hit the community.

DeLoe contacted Thrive Life Consultant Alisha Erickson and set up the demonstration at the Elders Activity Center.

“Jamie Baxter got a grant for some food supplies for the Tribe,” said DeLoe. “That’s when she gave us their information and we reached out to them. We met with them to deal with the grant and they had the idea to bring it on to campus here for the employees and the community to be able to be prepared.”

Thrive Life is a food company that offers freeze-dried foods in a can that can have a shelf life of as long as 25 years.

According to Thrive Life, their foods are healthy and nutritious, affordable and convenient. The company markets to the idea of being prepared for any situation by having healthy food that can last for decades and still be tasty and nutritious when needed.

Erickson said that the food the company offers is picked at its ripest point and then freeze-dried.

Raw or cooked foods are frozen to as much as minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit. The food is then placed in a vacuum chamber at low heat. As the food warms, water turns to vapor and evaporates out in a process known as sublimation, which allows the food to maintain its shape. The food is 90 percent lighter after being freeze-dried. The food is then packaged and sealed in containers with nitrogen gas to prevent spoilage.

When water is added to the food, it regains its original flavor, smell and texture.

According to Dr. Gary Stoner, professor of Medicine at Medical College of Wisconsin, freeze-dried berries can retain as much as 90 percent of their anthocyanins, which are compounds that give berries their color and possibly prevent cancer.

Stoner said that vitamins C and E are mostly lost in the freeze-drying process.

Erickson handed out strawberries, corn, coconut and pineapple samples to those present.

Tribal Elder Peggy VanAtta said she is an avid canner and that the chicken salad tasted much like her own.

“I thought it was very good,” said VanAtta. “I don’t buy stuff that has words I can’t pronounce. If I can’t say it, I don’t want it.”

VanAtta’s comments put a smile on Erickson’s face as she pointed out the list of ingredients on the can of pineapple was simply pineapple; nothing else.

“I tried the pineapple, the corn, the coconut, the chicken salad and the strawberries,” said Elders Lead Cook Kevin Campbell. “They were good; really good. It was something I would eat. It’s remarkable.”

Campbell said he hopes to secure some of the Thrive Life products for the Elders’ kitchen. He said there might be a time when those foods could come in handy.

“This would be good for emergency backup,” said Campbell. “If a freezer went down or a refrigerator, I’d still be able to make something and feed people.”

Thrive Life offers three-month, six-month and one-year food packages. The prices vary on different items individually purchased and the packages are $583.99 for the three-month package, $1,312.99 for the six-month package and $2,407.99 for the one-year package.

There are 24 one-gallon cans of food in the three-month package, 48 cans in the six-month package and 99 cans of food in the one-year supply. The packages can be viewed at www.yummyquickmeals.com.

“We want to make sure that we’re ready so in case there is an emergency we’re prepared so we can serve some people,” said DeLoe.