Food Storage

Here's me dry-pack canning for the first time in Feb '06!

So, this was the topic for the fifth Sunday lesson yesterday in our ward. I didn't attend the meeting because I was with the young women, but it started a conversation on Denise's blog and I had so much to say, I thought I needed my own post on the subject. So here's my opinions on food storage:

First of all, I think people get Emergency Preparedness and Food Storage confused. Food storage is a year's supply of food to sustain your family in a time of need. I think of these times as a loss of a job or other big financial stress. In these situations, you could live off your food storage until things straighten out without having to rely on the credit cards, your family, or the church to feed your family. Emergency Preparedness is preparing a 72 hour kit with mostly ready-made and easy to prepare foods to sustain you and your family in case of some sort of natural disaster when you would be without power or access to any outside source for food for a short amount of time. For example: I would put wheat in my food storage, so I could grind it and turn it into a variety of foods for my family to eat for an extended amount of time. I would NOT keep a year's supply of freeze dried foods, gross! But I would keep three days of freeze-dried or no prep meals to keep my family alive in an emergency when I wouldn't have power or a place to cook. Food Storage and Emergency Preparedness are linked because they both involve self-sufficiency, but it makes me crazy when people say "oh I've got my food storage, I got a bunch of MRE's" or "how are you going to turn that wheat into something when you have no power". Duh!!

So here's my story of Food Storage. I started in 2005 when I set aside $10/week to buy something at the grocery store for food storage. I went to the church website and printed out their recommendations for a year's supply for a family of four. My cupboards were full of foods that my family would eat, I figured a three month supply of canned veggies, a few beans, soup, etc. So I started on the other foods I knew my family ate: rice, pasta, flour and sugar. When I had a big stack in the basement, I got the canner from the cannery and put it all into #10 cans. Here's my rotation philosophy: I'll worry about it in ten years. Sugar keeps forever, flour, rice and pasta last 10-12 years. So why worry about it? Then someone always says: "but if you don't eat it now, your family won't eat it when you have to, they won't be used to it, etc, etc". My answer to that is: yes they will. Given no other options, they will be thankful that their Mom went to all this work and will eat what they have! No one's going to starve!

Within six months, I had nearly a year's supply of rice, sugar, flour, pasta and a few smaller things. Next I moved on to honey, yeast, oil, mayo, etc. Meanwhile, I watched for sales and also tried to stock up on pantry foods: spaghetti, veggies, things we eat all the time. I still think if I keep it well stocked, my pantry holds three months of food. Then I had to make my wheat decision. I thought wheat was for crazy people. The only way I could buy it was if I just said: "It last for 20 years, I'll figure it out another day!" So I bought wheat and the DeSistos gave us over 300 lbs of it when they moved. So now I've jumped in to the whole wheat thing and have been making bread for my family. We were spending $7 on bread every week and I had 300 lbs of free wheat in my basement! It's way easier than I thought. My Bosch makes a batch big enough to feed us for a week. I've also got a year's supply of oats and six months of beans.

So anyway, I'd say I have a years supply of the staples. Some people would argue that it's boring food, or that my kids will hate it, but I think it's a good place to start. The staples are what your family eats the most. When it comes down to it, if Travis lost his job next week, we would have enough basics to feed us for a long time. I would rather have 50 lbs of boring wheat that will make breakfast for three months instead of five boxes of sugar cereal that will last two weeks (same price). You can make your food storage money go a lot further with the "wheat and beans" method than the pantry of fun foods. On the same note, I do keep a lot of the foods my kids eat. Lots of peanut butter, honey and my wheat will feed Grant for two meals a day! And now that I've got the boring stuff down, I want to focus on canned fruit, veggies, etc. I'm still undecided on powdered milk. It does NOT keep for 10 years, so I know I'll need to use it if I buy it and it's very expensive. And for any jello lovers out there, Rite Aid brand jello is on sale 4/$1 this week. Stock up!! You could get a year's supply for $10!!

My food storage guru is Leann Hanson. She has a year's supply of everything! I've tried to follow her lead and stock up on ziplock bags, shampoo, and even paper towels when they are on sale. Another great tip came from Sarah W. She said taught me that food storage is like life insurance: you put money into it and if you have to throw it out after ten years and never use it, you'll never regret it. She taught me that you just develop your faith. Don't stress about how to use it, torture yourself with complex rotation schedules, etc. Just follow the Lord's commandment to keep a year's supply of food. Start small and before you know it, you'll be almost there. You'll never be done, and you'll find a way to use it when you need to.

And really, if there is a massive natural disaster and you have depleted your 72 hour kits, and you have to live off your food storage for an extended amount of time, a year's supply will never last anyway. You wouldn't keep it for yourself. You would share it with your neighbors who were in need. Maybe we are counseled to keep food storage to bless not only our families, but our communities in times of need. Same with Emergency Preparedness: in the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989, our neighbors knew they could come to our house for fresh water because my parents always kept their 72 hour supply of water. So anyway, there is my long rant about food storage. I hope we never have to use it, but I'm grateful that we've had the money to buy it.

P.S. If the wheat and beans method isn't for you, I have heard of people who come up with their family's ten favorite meals. Then they just stock the supplies to make each meal five times. I've never talked to anyone who's actually done this, but let me know how it works if you do!