Food Friday: Disaster Dining with Pallucci

*Every Friday is all about food on Red Cross Talks – everything from Red Cross inspired recipes to emergency food tips and solutions.

For Chef Niel Siomra food is a family affair.

His wife and their teenage children are no strangers to the kitchen – they often help at his Italian restaurant, Pallucci, and every week the Siomra family has a taco night where they cook together. You can even see Neil and his daughter in action on this blog teaching others how to cook pizza.

With that in mind, we invited Neil to do a cooking demo at our Disaster Cooking Class as part of the kick-off to the annual Walmart fundraising campaign. This year, Walmart aims to raise $2.8 million, funds that will go toward helping families affected by disaster right here in Canada.

We sometimes forget that disasters can happen in Canada – and this year we’ve had everything from bushfires to floods. The Red Cross is also there to help families forced to leave their homes due to house fires. The Red Cross advocates that Canadians should be prepared to sustain themselves for up to 72 hours in case of a disaster – such as a long power outage in your home.

It’s helpful when parents talk to their children about potential disasters and let them be a part of emergency preparedness planning. If they are involved with their family’s preparedness, kids tend to feel empowered and less scared when a disaster strikes. It also doesn’t hurt to try and have a little fun with your children – if say, for example, the power is out for long periods of time.

During the Disaster Cooking Class, Neil and his children showed us how to do just that by working together to prepare disaster-friendly tacos using canned chicken, cheese whiz and taco shells. For dessert, Neil lit candles (which would be in your emergency preparedness kit) and had a marshmallow roast!

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