Prepare for the Bread Lines
Sunday, June 15, 2008 (03:18:35)

Posted by gentle

When Herbert Hoover took office, the economy was booming and times were good. During his four year term, household income fell 35% and unemployment rose to 25%. The Great Depression began after his first year in office, and despite efforts to implement volunteer efforts and government action, he was unable to end the economy's downward spiral. He lacked charisma in relating to voters and had poor skills in working with politicians.

Sound familiar?

George Bush's approval ratings hover between 25-28%. Jimmy Carter's popularity dipped to 28% in 1979 and Richard Nixon and Harry Truman suffered ratings in the low-to-mid 20% in the last years of their administrations. The difference between the other president's low ratings and that of George Bush, GW's are accompanied by a severe downturn in the economy. No matter what he says from the podium or what Bernanke of the Federal Reserve Bank says, people are worse off now that they were eight years ago.

Today, I make less than one fifth what I used to make, my bills have more than doubled and my current job is instable.

I know I am not alone.

Our economy has come full circle. Food prices are skyrocketing. Unemployment is rising. Foreclosures are at a record high. Fuel prices are out of control and there seems to be no end in sight.

At the rate things are going, there may be a bread line in your future, just like the ones your grandparents (or great grandparents, depending on your age) stood in. Unlike the people who lived during The Great Depression, this generation is ill-equipped to adapt to a life of have-not. The Baby Boomers have been eating with a silver spoon for years and their ability to adapt to adversity is questionable. How will they cope if the economy continues its current downward spiral?

Even though we live in a farming community, this is not the place to come if you are hungry. Some of the people living here are worse off than their city-dwelling counterparts. Some people out here are already living on beans and rice and pasta because that is all they can afford.

People who live in the cities should not expect to come to the country in search of food.

There are four churches in our small town and I would venture a guess that none of them has either the intention or wherewithal to meet the needs of a hungry community, should things get worse.

I expect things will get worse, and so do you.

Who will feed the people?

I have designed and am building a water purification system, the current phase of which will be able to provide drinking water for quite a few people. Progress is somewhat slow because I can only do what I can afford. The system could be scaled to provide drinking water for well over 1000 people, if I had the money. Currently, I need sand. Lots and lots of sand.

So, what about food?

Today, I got to thinking about that, and what it would take to build a very large wood-fired oven that could bake enough bread for a small community. I wondered how much bread could be baked if the oven was tended 24 hours per day. I wondered how large the oven would have to be to provide at least 100-200 loaves of bread each day and then I wondered how many people it would take to make the dough for the bread. How much flour and yeast and pans would we need?

You can only store flour for six months to a year before it loses its food value. You still might be able to make bread with it, but that bread won't do much for you. Storing whole wheat makes more sense, but then we need a way to grind it, and if we are going to be baking 100-200 loaves of bread or more each day, that's a lot of grinding.

I'm just thinking aloud now.

Ground corn will store longer than flour, but then we'd have to make corn bread and that would be heavier and would not go as far. Still, I guess we could also make corn bread. Whole corn stores better, but we need to grind it. Perhaps we could make bread out of several different grains.

How much wheat would we need to store? Well, roughly figured, making 200 loaves each day, we'd go through 1000 pounds in less than five days and then the operation would come to a screeching halt. 10,000 pounds would last approximately 50 days and if we need to open a bread line, the need would be longer than 50 days. Still, we could start with 10,000 pounds and go from there.

How many people could we feed with 200 loaves of bread and for how long. If the bread was their mainstay, it is conceivable that two people could go through a one pound loaf in a day with no problem, so technically, that's 400 people per day if we could maintain the pace. Man cannot live on bread alone, but a bread line could mean life or death for some people.

We need wood and lots of it. We have wood, but we need to get it cut and stacked and split. Perhaps the people who need food can help cut wood and make dough and grind flour, but we still need lots of wheat and yeast and pans.

We could make the dough in huge batches, pulling out what we need for each loaf. It'd be easier to keep the starter dough going that way and the yeast would go farther.

We could make flat bread which would take less yeast and is quick and easy to cook. Several people could be cooking at the same time, increasing the daily output, but we still need lots of wheat and water and oil. We can't forget the oil. We can purchase that in bulk from Sam's Club or Costco and that stores well.

I have an idea for an oven design in my head, but we'll need lots of firebrick, something that we cannot afford at this time, without a miracle...or community participation. Naw, people won't want to chip in with either money or labor because that's just how they are. We probably can't even count on the community of believers to help with this project. That's the cold, hard facts of life. Still, the project is worthwhile and should be seriously considered.

Let's take inventory of our current resources.

1. We have wood
2. We have a very good chainsaw. (need gas and oil and another chain and extra sharpening files)
3. We have a good location for the oven, close to the wood and water.
4. We have lots of stone, but brick would be better.
5. We have 150 pounds of wheat and one large package of yeast. (wow, we need so much more!)

What do we need?

1. Bricks and cement.
2. Lots of firebrick
3. Steel for a door would be nice, but if we don't have that, we could work something else out.
4. Lots of wheat!
5. Some way to store the wheat!
6. Cooking oil and salt and more yeast.

Are there alternatives?

• We could use clay to make the oven, but that changes the design and size. We'd then need more, smaller ovens.
• We could make our own firebrick from clay. (LOTS of work!)
• Use cooking stones to make flat bread over an open fire, but we can't do that in the rain and snow.
• What about huge pots to make soup over a fire? No, bread is easier to store and distribute. Perhaps we could do both? That's another project.
• How are we going to afford all of that wheat and where are we going to put it? I suppose I could come up with a storage solution. How are we going to grind it? We need a good grain mill or several smaller ones. We could pedal power the grain mill for efficiency and speed.

I can't do this by myself! I'll need help, but we've already considered that improbable scenario.

You know the day is coming just as well as I do.

How could you not feed them if they are hungry, and if you can't feed them, perhaps you could help us feed them. And if you don't feed them and don't help us feed them... Matthew 25:41-45

So, there I was today, minding my own business, and these thoughts came to mind.

Now what am I going to do?

The following morning...

Perhaps, rather than building a very large oven, we could build several ovens and distribute the workload.  Ovens would need to be built near a wood source and close enough to aid in distribution.  This would require community participation for it to work.  It's time for Christians to get busy.