Short Term Food Storage Revisited!

Most people that talk about food storage differentiate between long term and short term foods.  What are the long term foods?  The ones you typically think about when you talk about food storage - those #10 cans of wheat and rice and hard beans.  These are needed and something you will definitely want to store, but they are not that useful in a short term emergency.

The nature of an emergency creates a very stressful situation.  You are stressed, your family is stressed...the last thing you want to do is to start eating foods your body isn't used to.  In a short term emergency situation (think 3 months or less) you want to eat foods that you are used to and that can be prepared easily.  

Check out the stake video on short term food storage here:

What are these foods?  The foods you buy and eat every day.  Some ideas:

Breakfast:

• Cereal
• instant oatmeal packets
• freeze-dried fruit
• Powdered milk or milk substitute
• Pancake mix 
• Powdered eggs
• Hot chocolate

Lunch:

• Canned soups and chili 
• Boxes of macaroni and cheese 
• Crackers and peanut butter
• Canned or dried fruits
• Juice boxes

Dinner:

• Hamburger helper
• Cans of stew
• Instant rice. 
• Rice-a-roni and couscous (plain and flavored) 
• Canned meats
• Canned vegetables and canned fruits 

Treats:

• Small packages of jerky
• Dried fruit, and nuts
• Cookies and candy
• Pretzels, goldfish crackers

The idea is that you store foods you are already eating.  The easiest way to gather these foods is to purchase extra when you are at the store.  If you're buying one can of soup, buy two so you have an extra for storage.  Done this way, you can build your three month short term food stores in no time.

Last year the church made a change as well.  They changed the bulk of the food they were processing to "finished goods" like pasta and pancake mix instead of flour.  They see the need for these easier to prepare foods.  

Keep an eye open for case lot sales at your local grocery store, or Maceys has case lots on sale all the time and Costco and Sams Club only sells by the case.  This is a great way to stock up.  

Goals for February:

Choose one or more of these goals for February to ensure you are prepared for ready to use food in an emergency:1. Purchase three cases of canned goods your family likes to eat

2. Every time you go to the store this month, choose a few items to buy double of so you can store the extras.

3. Make sure you have some protein and fats in storage - peanut butter, cans of tuna, vegetable oil

Let's get prepared together!