Completely agree that making things yourself is a good idea. Food is probably the easiest, as almost all places to live have an entire room with equipment for making and storing food.

Disagree about going to any "prepper" meetups, unless you want to listen to angry people rant about "the government" when they're really just upset at their ex-wives. Very few preppers learn how to do anything themselves. Buying a pallet of bottled water and a generator is not helping the world.