December Food Storage Monthly/Challenge

I passed out a paper copy at church

December Food Storage Monthly

Decide as a family this year that 25 or 50 percent of your Christmas will be spent on a year’s supply. Many families in the Church spend considerable sums of money for Christmas. Half or part of these Christmas monies will go a long way toward purchasing the basics. I recall the Scotsman who went to the doctor and had an X-ray taken of his chest. Then he had the X-ray gift-wrapped and gave it to his wife for their anniversary. He couldn’t afford a gift, but he wanted her to know his heart was in the right place. Brethren, give your wife a year’s supply of wheat for Christmas, and she’ll know your heart is in the right place. (Bishop Vaughn J. Featherstone Second Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric)

This month’s food storage challenge is to sit down and figure out where you are at and set a plan. My husband and I have been actively working on our food storage for about 5 years now. We even took out a chunk of money to purchase a 3 months’ supply of what we felt should be in our food storage. Through the years we have learned what things we would actually use and things that were on our list, because of old traditions and cooking.

Today we really do not have storage at all. What happened to our 3 month supply you ask? It got eaten with all the other pantry food. We use to stock our pantry. That was our food storage and we “rotated it out.” I was racking my brain trying to figure out how come I couldn’t keep things stocked up. Then it was finally brought to my attention that we needed to have a separate pantry and food storage. A storage that you don’t rotate for 1,3,5,30 years. However long the longevity of the food is. Then you rotate that into your pantry and restock the storage. Since you will have different shelf lives you won’t have to be repurchasing everything at once.

We have also learned that you don’t have to store things you don’t cook with, won’t cook with, or don’t like. You might think well duh, but tradition says you need to store wheat, rice, beans and powdered milk, and other ingredients that you may have never cooked with. If you desire here is part two of this month’s challenge.

Take 14 note cards and write down 7 breakfasts and 7 dinners that you would like to have once a week for one year. There are 52 weeks in the year, so you will be having these meals 52 times. Write on the left side of the card everything it takes to make the meal and on the right side everything multiplied by 52. Don’t forget to add the water you will need for cooking. My food storage has 14 dinners (x 26 weeks) 7 breakfasts (x 52 weeks) a daily loaf of bread (x 365 days) and a variety of desserts. This is a very simple system that saves time and money because you only store what you need and will eat. It can easily be adapted from a years’ supply to a 2 weeks’ supply or a 3 months’ supply.

After reading this from Wendy Dewitt’s book, my husband and I started to realize how much we were trying store, with really no plan. We just guessed how much we might need for a year. I’ve wondered how we would really have fared. This system is so exact that you know you will have exactly what you need, no more no less. It’s simple and I think it brings an ease to putting together you food storage.

Let me know if you would like a CD from the Food Storage Fair. It has almost all of the information covered, and also includes Wendy Dewitt’s Book Everything Under The Sun