September 2007: Getting Started

Good news! Following the counsel of our church leaders on food storage has recently become easier.

As essential and basic as the need for food is, accumulating the storage can seem complicated, if not impossible. For many years we have carried in our mind the need for a year’s supply of food, which you may envision as 5-gallon buckets of wheat and #10 cans of powdered milk. It does not have to be this way.

You should have recently received two pamphlets: All Is Safely Gathered In, covering family finances, and Prepare Every Needful Thing on family home storage. They are brief, because how to follow righteous principles is up to you, but they are also direct and feasible.

Prepare Every Needful Thing acknowledges that space is a concern, as well as money, and there can be other limitations to what you can store. It encourages you starting with a one-week supply, and then gradually building up to a three-month supply. Afterwards you are encouraged to store more if you can, but one year is never mentioned.

The demand on you is less, but you still may be perplexed about where to start. One item that recently came to my attention is an emergency food kit at Costco. Containing 275 servings, it can be considered a three month supply, available for $114.99.

Once you look at the fine print, 45 of those “meals” are whey milk, and they may not be the best tasting rations, but it would be a start. You could also go in with several friends to buy one, split up the contents, and test them for practicality before fully committing to a purchase.

While this kit has shortcomings, it is basically 42 cents per (small) meal, which is not bad. Perhaps you feel like you would need to be even more economical to get your three-month supply. This may be a good time to look for sales. Ramen noodles can often be purchased for 10 cents a pack, and generic boxes of macaroni and cheese for 25 cents. Are these offerings providing you with the best nutrition? No, obviously, but they can keep you alive and they can be a start.

Now, let’s imagine that you want to have a little more variety and nutrition, but you don’t think you can spare very much—maybe five dollars a week. How would that go?

Carbohydrates are important for energy, so they make a good starting place. Taking your five dollars to the pasta and grains aisle, you are able to get a large package of spaghetti, one of macaroni, and a bag of rice that amount to about eighty servings. It is not quite a three-month supply, but it is a good start.

On your next shopping trip you think it would be good to add some protein. Meat can be very expensive, but beans have protein too, and you love chili, finding two serving cans for 68 cents each. You also get some canned beef ravioli on sale. This time you have only added about fourteen servings to your storage, but the variety has increased and you feel good about that.

On the third week you decide you should add some vegetables to your diet, getting canned green beans and carrots. Again, it is not as impressive as the first week of shopping was, but you can really see the growth of your food supply, and you have only spent $15.00 so far.

You can find many items even more cheaply going through the dry pack at the cannery. There you can get over three pounds of macaroni for around three dollars. Purchasing your grains and beans cheaply there can leave more cash for meat and vegetables when you get to those items.

The key is to adapt to your capabilities. What space do you have available? How tight is your budget? If you have to give something up, you will be blessed for it, and often the sacrifices are minor. For example, if you are purchasing lunch each day, there is a good chance that packing lunch one day a week would give you the five dollars right there.

As you accumulate your food storage, your obedience will be blessed. You will be keeping the future in mind, and keeping better track of your finances and diet. You can even have fun with it, cooking for friends and break the fast as you experiment with recipes and products. You can cook for the missionaries, or for dates, adding to your culinary skills.

As you focus on food storage you will probably want to stretch your food dollar, so next month we will be back with money-saving tips.

For more information, please visit www.providentliving.org.