Basic Food Storage: Introduction

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been counseled for nearly 100 years to have on hand at least a year's supply of food, medicine, clothing, cooking fuel, and other basic commodities to sustain life.  When we hear the phrase "year's supply" at church, most people think only of the food and leave it at that.  When people begin their "year's supply," they begin with food.  And it's a good place to begin.  It takes a bit of time and money to build one's food storage, and food is something most of us eat every day.

I've been doing this for over 30 years now. I had my basic long-term year supply of food storage before I had a husband or car or (my own) home.  My husband did not come with food storage when we married. (Well, he asked if I really wanted what was in his parents' crawl space.  I was a little creeped out by the idea of eating food that had been stored under the house.  For years.  With the spiders.)

From the date of our marriage we started to ramp up our storehouse of supplies.  We used wedding gift money to purchase long-term food storage items like wheat, rice, oats, and beans.  And not only did we have to obtain lots of food, but we also had to continue building up a supply of insulin and all related medical supplies.  About two years after our marriage, my husband started working at a local hospital and began acquiring other medical supplies.  I worked on diversifying our food supply.  And while we maintained a good supply of food, we didn't always rotate well (not recommended).  But we rarely had to toss anything.  As sometimes happens, especially with a young family, we took a snooze for a few years, really good years.  My husband's career was going well, I supplemented with writing, and we had three children.  Life was really good.

Then September 11 happened.  That was a bit of a wake-up call, to say the least.  Food storage became a bit less of going through the motions of following wise counsel, and a bit more of recognizing that the time may come when this food actually does sustain our lives.  And without getting political, our society continues getting crazier by the day.  Food storage and medicine, and really everything our family, any family, needs to survive is no longer theoretical.  Scriptural prophecies warn us that difficult times are coming.  Even a cursory study of history echoes this.  We have to be prepared.

The posts in the Basic Food Storage category will be aimed at developing an understanding of why, how, and where these particular items are stored, and how to use them in a way that will make everyone's tummies happy.


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