Avery Ashley works at the North Carolina cooperative extension in Brunswick County. This summer, he's offering classes on creating hurricane meal kits.
"The idea is that we're trying to teach people how to create a three to seven day shelf stable food supply to use in the event of a hurricane or some other natural disaster, and we want it to be both nutritious and able to be prepared without electricity," he told WHQR.
Ashley, who's a native of Columbus County, said that meal kits are crucial for surviving long-term power outages brought on by storms. During Potential Tropical Cyclone 8, which struck Brunswick and parts of New Hanover County in September 2024, power outages and road flooding made it hard for residents to get food.
"We weren't really able to leave our house for about three days," he said. "And then even still, most of the roads were flooded or washed out for days after that."
The cooperative extension is offering meal kit classes throughout the county over the next few weeks. The classes will teach residents how to build a shopping list, how to safely store and prepare food without access to heat or electricity, and how to create nutritious meals from shelf-stable goods.
Ashley said people may be surprised.
"We'll make tacos just from canned ingredients, you know, like bagged rice, instant rice, that kind of stuff that require no heating of any kind, no cooking of any kind," he said. "And they actually come out pretty darn good."
Hurricane Meal Kits: Nutrition and Food Safety will be held June 6th at the Barbee Library on Oak Island, June 10th at the Southwest Library at Carolina Shores, and June 24th at the Rourke Library in Shallotte. Click here for more information.
