Depending on the crisis, and if others know you are prepared, you may look like the corner grocery store. Obviously, you cannot stockpile enough supplies for the entire neighborhood, but can you, and will you turn away a friend or neighbor in need.
In any survival situation, your priorities lie with keeping your family and yourself alive. You may not know how long the crisis will last, so it would be difficult to decide if you even have enough supplies for your own needs let alone passing out supplies to others.
Many Preppers adhere to the philosophy that the more people you can convince to prepare the less of a burden those people will be in a crisis. This is true if they actually prepare and prepare sufficiently.
Some people’s idea of being prepared however, may be two gallons of water and some Ramen noodles. This would mean you would have to hold their hand through the entire process to make sure they stockpiled enough supplies and are gaining the knowledge and skills needed to survive long-term. This is not practical of course, they may not have the means financially to do more, and frankly, they may not see the need to do more. Therefore, you are back to square one, once a crisis hits they may look to you for help.
What Can You Do
You can keep the fact you are prepared a secret. This is difficult with today’s technology however. Your spouse/partner or children may post something on a social website or make a comment that to them is a trivial bit of information, but to others it may be a clue as to how well you are prepared. You may think no one is paying attention, but people are.
Certain segments of society today make it their goal to know where to go for help. Some people will look to others for help before they would attempt to help themselves. This article is not making any judgments, but simply stating a fact. One of the problems preppers will face during a crisis is dealing with people that depended on others, mainly the government for their very existence.
They will be desperate because they have no idea how to survive without help. Handouts as a definitive solution are not the answer during a crisis. Your supplies and the supplies of governmental agencies are limited making it a very short-term solution and possibly a dangerous solution if you provide handouts to others.
What you can do however, is share your knowledge and skills instead of passing out food and supplies that you and your family need for survival. In today’s world, you have to look out for others whether you want to or not. You have to do this to protect yourself.
Instead of Being a Convenience Store Become a Store of Knowledge during a Crisis
You have already determined you cannot stockpile enough supplies to feed anyone but your immediate family, so the solution would be to share your knowledge and skills with others. Instead of becoming a storehouse for food you will become a leader, whether you want to or not.
Show others how to start a community garden, how to preserve foods once they do have some, and point out to them that digging their own well makes sense. People have to be ready to provide a little of their own sweat and blood to survive or they simply will not survive. You have to let others decide if they are willing to help themselves before you can help them.
During a crisis, natural selection will play a role. Those not suited with the necessary skills and/or the strong determination to survive will not. This eventually will leave society with only those that have the skills and determination.
Society will eventually return but in the meantime, it will not be able to take care of anyone, it is survival at the individual level.
If you plan to stay and shelter in place, you will likely have to teach others in the community how to raise foods, forage for food on the outskirts of town and possibly teach others how to hunt and prepare foods.
Alternatives as discussed earlier include secrecy or leaving the area before the crisis has reached a critical level. This may not be possible for a variety of reason, but to believe you can live in the same community with others that are desperate, and not provide them with some type of help is probably a fantasy.
Considerations
As unfair or as ridiculous as it may sound you will have to, not only prepare yourself for a crisis, you will also have to be prepared to help others with your knowledge and skills. If all you have to offer, during a crisis is food and water it will be gone in a matter of days. This puts everyone’s survival in jeopardy, especially yours.