Nevada County locals Loraine Webb and Jim Wray demonstrate the how and why of packaging bulk foods with nitrogen. They're using equipment available for community members to use at minimal cost. Jim demonstrates packaging: make plastic bags using a heat sealer, fill with foodstuffs, suck out the oxygen with a small vacuum, then replace the air with nitrogen and seal.

Loraine, organizer of The Neighborhood Readiness Project, has arranged with several locally-owned grocery stores to sell 25 pound bags of grains, beans and other bulk foods at just above cost. Loraine's vision is our having food caches in every neighborhood in the county, so that, if the trucks stop rolling in an emergency, we'll have food for ourselves AND to share with our neighbors.