Falcon residents Paul and Laura Klienschmidt used to spend close to $600 each month on groceries. Paul Klienschmidt said their limited income as retirees just couldnít handle their rising food bill.ìI started buying samples of prepared foods,î he said. ìI bought big canisters of premixed foods.îHis wife went to a party and brought back cookies and samples from Thrive Life, which manufactures and markets freeze dried foods. ìEverything was packaged and prepared individually. It was freeze-dried and had a shelf life of like one year from when it was opened.îAfter his trash man commented on how little trash he and his wife were creating, it ìhitî him. ìI started seeing a change,î Klienschmidt said. ìYou always hear about buying gold because of inflation, but food is what you need.îToday, the Klienschmidts are consultants for Thrive Life.According to http://thrivelife.com, the company began in 2004 as a way to help people around the world become more self-reliant. Founders Jason Budge and Steve Palmer developed an innovative shelving unit called the Food Rotation System that allows people to store, organize and rotate a larger amount of canned food at home. Theylaunched a food line in 2007 called Thrive, which consists of freeze-dried foods that can be incorporated into daily meals or used as a quick snack.ìThrive contracts with their own farmers so there is nothing that is a GMO (genetically modified organism), and everything is picked at the optimum ripeness for freeze-drying,î Laura Klienschmidt said. ìBasically, when they select a farmer, they buy his whole field. He doesnít worry about growing it for someone else. Thrive has him grow it their way.îCarrie Thompson, also a consultant with Thrive and fellow Falcon resident, said, ìI learned that when you freeze-dry food, it has to be perfectly ripe and clean or it (the freeze-dry process) wonít work.îBoth Klienschmidt and Thompson wanted to find a way to teach people how to use the freeze-dried foods they had purchased. Thatís when the food-in-a-jar idea struck them. The food-in-a-jar concept allows for personalization because people can add or subtract ingredients to fit their needs and specific tastes, Thompson said. ìItís custom-made so I donít have to put in mushrooms, or I can add corn,î she said. ìYouíre basically 20 minutes from any meal.îCustomers can purchase prepared jars of freeze-dried meals from Thompson or Klienschmidt. ìYou can come for free and learn how to cook a couple of different entrees or meals,î Thompson said. ìThen you see how it is. You can cook it to see if you like it.îKlienschmidt said another benefit to the food-in-a-jar concept is that the meals containing meat are much healthier. ìAll the extra fat and grease from the meat is already gone so you donít have it in your meal,î she said.ìThis is really a new culture, a new way to shop,î Paul Klienschmidt said. ìWeíre all programmed to go the grocery store. But this way we bring the store to your door. Iím seeing my kids eat veggies theyíve never eaten before because they taste so good. And the meals in a jar can be good for up to five years.î
