Food Storage Workshop Part I

Thank you for everyone who made it to the Relief Society Meeting yesterday!!! It was great! I'll highlight the details briefly and post some of the documents handed out last night.

I took the first half of the meeting and talk about getting your year and three month supply food storage started.

First, I pointed out the most basic foods needed in a year supply and their quantity recommendation.

• Grains (wheat rice, corn, or other cereal grains) (25 lbs/person/month)
• Dried legumes (5 lbs/person/month)
• Nonfat dry milk (75 lbs/person/year)
• Salt (5 lbs/person/year)
• Fat or oil (20 lbs/person/year)
• Sugar or Honey (60 lbs/person/year)

Second, I listed the Seven Major Mistakes in Food Storage taken from a LDS Living magazine article I have on file.

• Variety—Many people only store the four basic items: wheat, milk, honey, and salt. Most of us could not survive on such a diet. Some people are allergic to wheat and may not be aware of it until they eat wheat meal after meal. Wheat may be too harsh for young children. They may be able to tolerate it in small amounts, but not as the main staple in their diet. Be sure to add other grains, particularly ones your family enjoys eating, such as oats, rice, and pasta. Also store a variety of beans to add an array of color, texture, and flavor. Store flavorings such as tomato, bouillon, cheese, and onion. Put away a good supply of the spices that you like to cook with.
• Extended Staples—Never put all your eggs in one basket. Store dehydrated and/or freeze-dried foods as well as home-canned or store-bought canned goods. Makes sure you add cooking oil, shortening, baking powder, soda, yeast, and powdered eggs. You can’t cook even the most basic recipes without these items.
• Vitamins—Vitamins are especially important if you have children, since children may not be able to store reserves of nutrients in their bodies as well as adults can.
• Quick-and-Easy and “Psychological” Foods—Quick-and-Easy foods can help you through the times when you may be under too much stress to cope with preparing food. Quick-and-Easy foods include freeze-dried foods, MRE’s, and canned soups/chili. “Psychological Foods” are goodies such as Jell-O, pudding, and hard candy.
• Balance—Too many people make the mistake of buying all their wheat, then buying all of another food storage item. Keep balance in mind as you build your storage. If you suddenly needed to live on your present storage, you would fare better having a three months’ supply of a variety of items rather than a year’s supply of two or three things.
• Containers—Always store your bulk foods in food-grade storage containers. So often food is thrown away because it was susceptible to excessive sunlight, moisture, insects or rodents.
• Use You Storage—not knowing what to do with food storage is one of the biggest problems. It is vital that you and your family become familiar with the things you are storing. Learn to prepare these foods. This is not a skill you will want to acquire during a time of stress. A stressful situation is the worst time to dramatically change your diet. Learn how to prepare these foods and begin eating them.

Third, I talked about Ordering from the Cannery. For that you can go the How do you get your food storage and the Cannery Schedule posts.

For the last bit, we talked about three month supply. I don't think I personally covered more than what was in the Three Months Supply post, but I did appreciates everyone's comments and questions. Several people shared their experiences and what they do for food storage. That definitely inspired me to make my food storage better and not be so intimidated by the Cannery.

Amy gave an excellent intro to couponing class! I don't want to take away from the awesomeness of her handout, so I'll make it it's own post.