After a failed 2012 effort, the state of Alaska is again seeking bids in hopes of building an emergency food cache capable of feeding 40,000 people for up to a week in the face of a major natural disaster.
It's just one piece of the puzzle in prepping for possible catastrophe -- and in a state where 95 percent of food is imported, some Alaskans are calling for far more food preparedness on both the individual and community levels.
On Wednesday, the state posted a request for bids in search of vendors that could supply Alaska with the emergency rations. The food is envisioned to feed 40,000 people, three meals a day, for three to seven days.
The directive came directly from Gov. Sean Parnell, who allocated $4.8 million to emergency food caches in his FY11 budget.
"It's not a matter of if, but when a natural disaster will hit Alaska," Parnell's spokesperson Sharon Leighow wrote on Thursday.
A similar attempt to stock these hypothetical food stores fell short in October of 2012, when only one vendor bid for the project and the state determined the bid didn't fit the qualifications. Now the state is trying again, and it has tweaked its request in hopes of reeling in more competitors.
This time, the state has separated the bidding process into two parts: First, a vendor will be chosen to supply the food. Then, a second vendor will be chosen to store and maintain the supplies.
Half the food would be stored in Anchorage and the other half in Fairbanks. The emergency rations will need to have a shelf life of at least five years, but in some cases could have a shelf life of 20 years or more, said John Madden, director of the Alaska Division of Homeland Security.
The rations will consist of a variety of individually-wrapped foods. However, the state won't accept the pre-packaged food commonly known as MREs, due to their shorter shelf life. The food must provide for the varying needs of the population, from infants to elders. And the vendor will need to have a plan on what to do with the food if it isn't used before its expiration date. That could mean eventually donating the rations to local food banks, Madden said.
Planning for another big quake
Why enough food for 40,000 people? The numbers are derived from Hazus, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's rating system, Madden said. Plug a disaster scenario into the system and you are handed an assessment of potential losses.
Alaska's scenario is a major earthquake akin to the 1964 Good Friday earthquake -- the second-largest earthquake ever recorded, which Madden called a "very good, high-end bench mark" to use when assessing supply needs. The quake registered 9.2 on the Richter scale and lasted around four minutes. It devastated communities across Southcentral Alaska.
A major disaster like an earthquake could cause the supply chain to Alaska to come to a screeching halt. If the supply chain were disrupted -- in particular, the Anchorage port, the point of entry for roughly 90 percent of all goods that enter Alaska -- the state would quickly be pressed for supplies.
"It is estimated that if the port of Anchorage was disrupted that there is 3 to 5 days of supplies on store shelves," wrote Jeremy Zidek, spokesperson with the Alaska Department of Homeland Security.
The food caches would be called upon in such an emergency. The Department of Homeland Security would then distribute food, calling on the National Guard, military assets and private partners to help, if needed, Zidek wrote.
One part of the puzzle
The food caches are "one element of a much larger plan to handle a catastrophic disaster," Madden said. Among the other necessary supplies would be purified water, electricity and communication gear. The state has made efforts to address those needs with 26 electrical generators, seven water purification units and 11 radio communication units to be utilized in times of need. The water purification units have already been used in flood-damaged Kotlik in Western Alaska, Zidek said.
All told, the supplies have cost $4.4 million, with some money for the communication gear coming from of federal grants.
The state is also hoping that Alaskans will seek to be prepared on an individual level. The state's emergency supplies would be used to back up critical structures -- generators could power a hospital or health clinics, for instance -- and to provide for those most affected by a disaster. That likely means folks who have lost their homes.
But large portions of the population could also be affected to lesser degrees, Zidek wrote. Thus, families are advised to be prepared for disasters within their own households.
Broader solution needed?
While the state's hypothetical food caches would provide short-term assistance in face of disaster, problems remain with Alaska's food security. Alaska imports an estimated 95 percent of its food, and Alaskans spend around $2.5 billion on food every year.
This "certainly makes us vulnerable in times of emergency," said Danny Consenstein, director for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Alaska Farm Service Agency.
Consenstein applauds Parnell's efforts to secure rations for times of emergency. But he cautioned that the food security issue in Alaska is bigger than that.
"I would encourage policymakers to think more broadly about how to address the problem," he said. That may include creative, off-the-cuff solutions, such as maintaining root cellars in rural Alaska villages that could be stocked with locally-grown produce, like potatoes.
Darren Snyder, a cooperative extension agent with the University of Alaska Fairbanks working out of Juneau, has been spearheading the emergency preparedness effort with the Alaska Food Policy Council. The Alaska Food Policy Council is a collaboration between more than 175 agencies and individuals seeking to improve Alaska's food system, from the Food Bank of Alaska to the Department of Fish and Game.
"We broadly invite anybody who's interested in strengthening Alaska's food system," Snyder said. The council is not behind the proposed food caches, but it has developed goals and strategies to strengthen food security in Alaska. One of these goals is improved emergency food preparedness.
Most of the state's emphasis on preparedness has been on individual households, Snyder said. But he wants to see local communities take charge of developing their own food caches.
The Alaska Food Policy Council has developed a template for communities that want to develop a food caching plan. But so far, nobody has stepped up to the plate to start putting these plans into practice, Snyder said.
Having emergency rations on hand within a community is "a very simple concept, which unfortunately has been ignored," Snyder said. Alaska communities are completely unprepared, he maintains, without a systematic approach to preparedness.
Community food caches in Alaska are right now an idea, not a reality.
Movement toward a broader, more coordinated state effort has begun, however, with the formation of the Alaska Food Resource Working Group this summer. The group, created in July under Parnell's directive, is seeking to jump-start coordination between state and federal agencies in managing Alaska's food security.
The group met for the first time in early November, in the first coordinated effort focused on how Alaska government agencies manage food. It is looking for roadblocks and challenges in Alaska's complex, multifaceted food system.
Meanwhile, the state's bidding process for emergency food cache vendors is open until February 2014.
Contact Laurel Andrews at laurel(at)alaskadispatch.com. Follow her on Twitter @Laurel_Andrews