The Importance of Food Storage

by Miriam Caldwell

How long could you last without a trip to the grocery store? What if you didn't count buying fresh milk? If there was a particular reason that you couldn't travel would you and your family be okay? As winter weather comes, you may not be able to make it to the store for two or three days and they may be low on food due to an ice storm and a run on the groceries.
In addition to surviving an ice storm or a blizzard do you have enough food to last you longer than that? If you do have enough food to avoid the grocery store for a month or two what types of food would your family be eating? Would they quickly become tired of canned tuna and peas? These questions may make you step back and look at how prepared you really are.

One part of becoming self-sufficient is planning for the needs of your family. One large area is planning for the daily needs of food and shelter. This is just one reason that food storage is so important to have on hand. For many people a year's supply of food is the magic number. Others consider a few months worth of food a good supply. It really is up to you.
When you are planning your food storage you need to store foods that your family will eat. You also need to store a variety of foods. There may be a great sale on peanut butter, and so you stock up on that. Your family will protest if they have peanut butter every day or for every meal. You can plan by having a monthly menu that you follow or you may choose to stock up by what you need to make a specific meal.

It is important that you rotate and use your food storage. You really should store what you eat and eat what you store. This will make the transition easier if you are every forced to rely solely on food storage. You can also save money because once you have a stockpile you only need to purchase the item when it is on sale.

If you do not have any food storage you should begin with at least one week's supply of food. This supply should be easy to fix and easy to move. You can store it in your emergency kit. It is nice to know that you have enough to last your family at least one week.

The past few weeks I have posted articles about the importance of food storage.  It is my hope that it will encourage those that don't have their food storage to begin it.  For those of us that do have food storage I am hopeful this will continue to add to the importance of having food storage.  Have a great week.