Why You Need a Food Storage Program Now
by Jim Rodgers

As I started down the stairs leading to our basement on November 30, 2005, life was going well. I had retired recently from the military and had a great civilian job, a wonderful wife, five good kids, and two grandchildren! I had some health problems—including a history of serious back pain—but I was mostly okay.

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Suddenly both legs flew out from under me, and I thudded down each of the fourteen steps, one tread at a time. It was like being whacked by a baseball bat on every vertebra! Even now, I relive that fall in my dreams.

I spent the next six weeks mostly in bed and often barely able to crawl to the bathroom. I was unable to work—my “serious” back problems had become “disabling.” The nice-paying job was gone, medical expenses went up dramatically, and life was suddenly very uncertain.

Counting Blessings Regardless of the Situation

Naturally, this caused fairly devastating financial, emotional, and psychological turbulence within our family. Fortunately, my military retirement pay kept coming in, we had been wise enough to obtain disability insurance, and my company was incredibly supportive. Looking back, however, we are most thankful that we had followed the wise counsel of Church leaders and built up a year’s supply of food and other consumable household needs.

While I endured days of pain, endless medical treatments, and voluminous insurance forms, our family enjoyed the blessings of having a year’s supply of food storage in our home. We simply didn’t have to worry about where our next meal—or the next meals for twelve months—were going to come from.

Can you imagine how comforting it was to enter our basement storage room and see a year’s supply of food that we liked, with lots of spices and goodies tucked in with the wheat? We had followed priesthood counsel and were thankful beyond measure for having done so. We were also thankful for the wisdom of friends who guided us in assembling that food storage.

We hadn’t always been so self-reliant. Just a year prior, we probably only had about four months of food stored. Good compared to most, but not compared to LDS culture or Church counsel. We always thought we had reasons for procrastinating: meager military wages, more kids than most, moving frequently with tight weight limits, and housing with scant storage space.

Fortunately, counsel during a 2004 stake conference inspired us to complete our food storage. We found that effective food storage was not really a matter of the challenges of time, space or money—but it was a matter of intent and commitment.

So, what will persuade you to pull together a complete, well-planned, and well-balanced food storage program appropriate to your situation? Or, to improve what you have and organize it better? Let’s review some common rationalizations used to justify never quite getting around to food storage or emergency supplies.

“That Could Never Happen to Us.”

Have you ever met people who think they will never need a bunch of food stored down in the basement? They’ve got a great house, their kids are superstars, they have lots of savings, and a secure job.

Let’s recall some historical events. Remember Hurricanes Katrina, Andrew, or Camille? Or the December 2004 Asian tsunami? Such catastrophes can be devastating even if you survive; many people in New Orleans survived Katrina with homes intact, but their workplaces were lost and community shattered. Remember how long it took for relief efforts to gear up?

Perhaps you don’t live near a coast, so hurricanes don’t apply. How about these?

· The drought in the western U.S., 2000–2005, or the resulting forest fires.

· Tornados, like the recent ones in Georgia and Alabama, can potentially threaten most regions.

· Almost-forgotten geological faults run deep under many towns and cities and are eons overdue for an earthquake.

· Two devastating Colorado blizzards, just last December. During these, some grinned at news reports about folks rushing to buy bread and milk—as if either would get you through an extended blizzard. Just last winter, sudden blizzards brought more than one hundred inches of snow to Oswego County, New York.

· The devastation caused by the events of September 11, 2001. Similar terrorist acts could have longer-lasting effects.

Maybe you’re a positive thinker, so surely nothing terrible could ever happen to you—bad things don’t happen to positive-thinking people, right? Well, maybe you’ve made or heard comments like these:

· “I had no idea my company was about to down-size me.”

· “The Middle East has to sell us their oil because we’re their biggest customer. Gasoline will never go over $2.00 a gallon!” (An acquaintance actually said this to me back in early 1999.)

· Or, “I never thought I would become disabled.” Yes, it can happen to you, just as it did to us.

Clearly, food storage and emergency preparedness should have a reasonable place on your priority list, especially if you have children or significant medical issues. Additionally, the lower your income level and savings, the more important food storage becomes. That last statement may seem counter-intuitive; if your income is low to start with, how in the world will you be able to buy food storage? But, the less you make, or the less stable your job is, the greater is your need to eke out enough money to invest in food storage. Those small investments may well be what tides you over from job to job. And, unlike savings in a bank, food storage won’t be counted against your eligibility for some unemployment or assistance program.

The Key Questions

Each family must achieve its own balance of reasonable food storage costs, quantity, and quality. Still, the key questions are:

· Are you ready to get started, right now?

· Are you ready to start doing it better?

Suppose you never actually use that food storage? It needn’t be wasted. What if a friend or acquaintance becomes unemployed or disabled? How would you like to gift several grocery bags full of items from your food storage—and which you’ll replace inexpensively over the following months?

What’s the value of being so kind? What’s the value of thus teaching your children the values of living providently and generosity?

So, what could you accomplish if you made food storage a new (or renewed) priority?

· Could you spare a few hours a month planning and implementing your food storage program? Spend $100, $50, or even $10 a month on home storage?

· Could you plan a family night to clear storage space in the basement? Build or buy some storage shelves? Prep a 72-hour kit? Go storage shopping at a discount warehouse?

The important thing is to do up-front thinking and planning, then divide tasks and purchases into reasonable chunks you can accomplish as budgets allow, and as Church leaders have counseled.

Luckily, we never had to dip into our food storage supplies, other than normal rotation. Still, it felt good to know we could go months without buying groceries, if needed. The enhanced sense of psychological well-being was vital to our ability to endure a very trying period. Hopefully you never need to use your food storage. But if you do, we hope you will have as much as you need, whenever you might need it—as we did!

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Sharing your food storage Posted by Laurie from Massachusetts You may find that as you give to a friend in need that you will be blessed with more than you had before! We gave over 3 months to a family in need, decreasing our own storage down to 4 months on hand. When recounting our cases and updating our inventory soon afterwards, we had 7 months! and this was without counting our kitchen pantry as we did previously. A true blessing.