Getting Started

Here are some ideas for beginning a food storage plan in your home:

1. Begin by storing one week's worth of food that your family eats.

Go shopping and purchase two week's worth of food, if possible. At the end of the first week, go shopping again and purchase another week's worth of food (you will still have one week's worth of food left from your shopping trip last week, plus, the week's worth of food that you buy at this shopping trip). Repeat this every week, and you will always have a week's worth of food on hand.

2. Store a basic food item.

If there is a basic food item (such as rice, pasta, flour) that your family eats regularly, purchase this item in bulk (such as 20 pounds worth) and store it in a clean, airtight container. Keep track of how long it takes you to use it. Gradually purchase a little more (for example, purchase an additional 20 pounds before you have completely used the first 20 pounds) and build up a storage in this way. I will write a longer post on storage containers soon.

3. Store water.

To begin, you could buy a case of bottled water and store it in your home. You can also re-fill sturdy plastic bottles with water. (By "sturdy plastic" I mean apple juice bottles, for example. Don't use milk bottles because they quickly deteriorate and will leak). I will write a future post about water storage and containers.

4. Grow something.

Begin by growing something. This could be a small potted plant of chives, grown on your kitchen counter. It could be a planter box on your porch or deck with strawberries or tomatoes. It could be a small box garden in your yard. Or, if you are ambitious, it could be a larger garden in your yard, a berry patch, or a fruit tree. I will add posts about all of those things soon.

There is an excellent article in the Ensign (March 2009) about this basic, simple approach to food storage. (Click on the link to read the article).