Supply chain issues

You may have started noticing more gaps on store shelves. It's not everything, and often it is fairly specific; maybe you can get your usual brand of peanut butter, but not in the jar size you favor. However, you may be feeling some concerns.

I am thinking about food storage again. We went through a lot of our storage during my unemployment. This would seem like a good time to stock up again, as part of trying to catch up.

There may be things that I want to stock up on and can't, due to availability. It is also possible that there are some things that I should not stock up on.

My thoughts largely come from seeing a tweet asking people to not purchase WIC items if they were low. That program benefiting women, infants, and children, only allows certain food items, without substitutions. If the items they are allowed through the program are out, program participants may not have any other options.

https://twitter.com/ThornCoyle/status/1447229925002407938

WIC items have shelf labels, but it was not something I thought of until I saw the tweet. Our family used the program many years ago, but it is far enough past that it wasn't in the forefront of my mind. There are still people who need it.

Early in the pandemic we saw a lot of hoarding for certain items, where sometimes you could not find what you needed. As wise as building up a supply can be, it does not override the responsibility to love our neighbor.

At the same time, sometimes that food supply will end up being for someone else. We may find a neighbor in need, but there are also many people with needs that we don't know. Our personal stockpile may miss them.

We talk about doing things in wisdom and order; allow me to add doing them in love and awareness.

Therefore, the most important tool in this decision-making is inspiration. We must be able to hear the Spirit, while we are shopping and after we have added items to storage.

President Biden recently announced an expansion of the hours that the Port of Los Angeles will be open. That can offer some relief to these issues, but it could also come at a great cost to the workers there. Our nation has lost about 700,000 people, with many others alive but with compromised health. That affects the workforce. Burning out the people remaining would be a horrible attempt at a solution.

That doesn't mean that expanding the port hours is not the right thing to do, but we need to make our choices based on what will make lives better. That is not always what correlates most strongly with corporate profits.

To learn more about supply chain issues in general, here is a thread with links to many articles:

https://twitter.com/hockendougal/status/1438538388991266823 

However, for taking the steps that will help your household the most, and that will make you of the most benefit to those around you, the best help is going to be the Spirit.