Getting Started--Part One

"The best place to have some food set aside is within our homes, together with a little money in savings. The best welfare program is our own welfare program. Five or six cans of wheat in the home are better than a bushel in the welfare granary.

We can begin ever so modestly. We can begin with a one week’s food supply and gradually build it to a month, and then to three months. I am speaking now of food to cover basic needs. As all of you recognize, this counsel is not new. But I fear that so many feel that a long-term food supply is so far beyond their reach that they make no effort at all."

---Gordon B. Hinckley, LDS Church President, 1995-2008. Click here to read the entire article.

Note: This post is very basic information. If it is too basic, skip to another post on this blog. There's a wide variety of information already posted, and more to come!

Start small

• Don't be overwhelmed by everything you could store, or everything someone else might know about food storage. Start where you are.
• Open your kitchen cupboards. What food do you already have at home? If, suddenly, all you had to eat was the food in your cupboards, how long would it last?
• You probably already have at least a one-day food storage! You might even have enough for a week!Are there foods that would complement what you already have, to complete a week's storage of food? Do you have spaghetti noodles, but no sauce? Add "spaghetti sauce" to your grocery list. Put that can of sauce with the spaghetti noodles you already have. Now you have one meal in food storage.
  

Start with a week's supply of food

• What do you ordinarily eat? Write down a week's worth meals that you typically eat. This could be cold cereal for breakfast, peanut butter and jelly for lunch, crackers for a snack and spaghetti noodles with spaghetti sauce for dinner.
• Purchase those items on your next trip to the grocery store. If necessary, set aside a little money each week until you are able to purchase those items.
• Set this "week's supply" aside in your home. It could be set aside for a year, while you work and save to build a longer term supply. While you are working and saving you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you have a week's supply available for any circumstance.
• After you have accumulated a longer-term storage, then incorporate that week's supply of food into your longer-term storage and rotation.
  

Purchase basic, shelf-stable foods for your beginning food storage.

• You don't need a lot of storage space, fancy storage containers or a deep freeze for a week's supply of food.
  
• You don't need to know how to bake bread or can your own food!
  
• Choose foods that you typically eat, purchase a supply to last one week, and set it aside. Supermarkets are well-stocked with foods that have a long shelf-life. These include canned fruits and vegetables, pastas, rice, cereals, and items such as peanut butter, pudding, and juice.
  

Previous posts focus on a three-month storage and a year-supply of basic food storage. You can see the archives of this blog for a variety of information. The March 2009, April 2009 and May 2009 posts have a lot of information about how to start a food storage, including where and how to store it.

Click here for a link to an excellent article about beginning a basic food storage. This was published in the Ensign March 2009.

Click here for counsel and direction for Family Home Food Storage, published by the LDS church First Presidency, 2007. (Scroll to the middle of the page, click on "Family Home Storage pamphlet").