Provident Metals question

[cdickrun64]

Has anyone tried/tasted the pre-packaged meals? They claim a shelf life of 25 years, and tasty too....??

 

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[$ilver$urfer]

No, but I plan on tasting them this December 22nd, 2012!

HH and planning for the apocalypse!

$ilver$urfer

 

[mts]

It's funny... I just stumbled across these for the first time last night on the Provident Web site. I had no idea that they sold prepared meals. So your timing is perfect.

I can't vouch for them in any way. But you are clearly paying a premium for the fact that they are "prepared" meals. Being able to just add hot water is great. But costly. I can't find anything on their web site about nutrition information. But I would guess that these meals cost as much as six times more than going out and buying the equivalent number of calories in rice, beans, and wheat from someplace like the LDS online store. If anyone can post nutrition information I'd be grateful.

To try and put it in perspective, the 240 serving kit of Wise Foods (Provident Metals) sells for $435. If we assume a generous 500 calories per serving (which could be high), that comes out to 120,000 calories or about 275 calories per dollar spent. In contrast, the Starter Kit sold by LDS has 44,800 calories of rice, wheat, beans, and oats for as little as $28. This comes out to 1600 calories per dollar. That makes the LDS calories almost 1/6th the cost of the Wise products.

HOWEVER, keep in mind that it also doesn't have to be an either-or situation. It makes sense to buy some prepared meals that taste good that you can fix without much trouble as well as some bulk cans of grains. Having to spend a bunch of time cooking raw wheat, rice, and oats can be very disheartening. Being able to have multiple, pre-prepared, tasty alternatives would certainly go a long way toward maintaining morale in an emergency situation.

So I'm very curious to learn what others have to say about these meals.

 

[Dok Holliday]

If I have to use an emergency meal I am going to be in a situation where I'm going to worry more about it existing and less about what it tastes like. Gimme more, and give it to me before the zombies come...

 

[Gilmore Happy]

If they are anything like the newer MRE's we used for military, they are awesome!!!

For about the first 6

Fully equipped with sodium, coffee/kool aid mix, and a brownie that tastes great. Use the Tobasco that comes with it for your main course, because you'll be backed up like LA traffic after eating just 2 of those...

Youll be packing a cool 1250 calories with each one. Here is the MRE link, if they are anything similar. Couldnt imagine them differeing too much. http://www.mreinfo.com/us/mre/mres.html

Tobasco...Youre welcome

 

[mts]

I wanted to post a quick follow up on this topic. I sent an email to Wise Foods to get a list of nutritional information. For the 240 serving package (List: $450, Provident Metals: $435) the average serving size was about 240 calories. The low was 150 (soup) and the high was 300 (alfredo). But most of them were in the 240-280 range. If you add it all up, you get 58,600 calories which is about 135 calories per dollar spent. Think of a normal item you eat that only has 135 calories in it and imagine paying a dollar for it. For example, I'm eating a chewy granola bar right now with 130 calories. Paying $1 for it is more than your typical vending machine price which is obviously inflated.

As I said before, the LDS starter kit runs about 1445 calories per dollar so it is less than 1/10th the cost. However, the Wise meals are obviously going to be easier to fix and provide a nice variety (they likely taste better too). So you are definitely paying for the convenience.

One important point is that they say this is a one month supply for 4 adults (or 2 adults and 4 kids). This is based on two servings per day per adult. That's only about 480 calories a day per adult. You could potentially survive on it for the short term, but you'd basically be starving all the time and couldn't do any real work. Obviously, 2000 calories a day over the long term is best. But even 1000 would be a huge boost over the 480 they are quoting. So just be aware that their numbers may not live up to your expectations. Also, note that they have 2 serving and 3 serving per day options. The numbers quoted above are for 2 servings a day. 3 servings a day would give you about 720 calories a day which is more realistic (but also more expensive).

Please note that I am not trying to bash the Wise products at all. I'm just trying to make sure everyone is informed. I'd hate to see someone go out and buy the 12 month, 2 serving per day option for around $4300 only to find out that it won't reasonably feed their family for more than 6 months (depending on daily caloric needs).