Wondering if the LDS on this board can tell me - do you REALLY have as much food stored as you are *supposed* to?
I was looking for some sites remembering links posted here way back when & stumbled across thefoodguys.com. For a family with 5 over 7 & 2 under - YIKES!!!!! their food storage calculator came up with a minimum # of each food that is shocking! LOL

And if you DO have it all & you have a family this size or bigger - how do you do it? Buy one of the prepared kits like at this site (over 6 thousand just for 4 adults) or a little at a time or what?

Just curious - hope you dont mind! :) We just got a house with a walk in pantry - but I still dont think I could store all of that food! LOL I haven't even figured out how to aquire the 6 months worth I'm "supposed" to have for foster care! LOL

We buy a little at a time. And we probably dont have enough to last a year. But we have enough to last a few months at least(granted the last couple of months would be some boring meals). The thing is, we just dont have a lot of the fancy bulk stuff from some of the sites or that the Church can order for us. We have mostly big bags of stuff or big flats of stuff from the store.

We have a space near our laundry room that would be perfect for food storage once we clear it out and put in some nice sturdy shelves or cabinets. Hopefully once that happens I can beef up our supply.

Hi there! I don't do food storage myself but I have a big LDS family that does. My one uncle has EIGHT children. They literally have food storage built everywhere in their home. In the halls of the house, there are doors with storage built between the studs in the walls. It seems like everyone has a "fruit room". These have tons of storage. My aunt's is built in her garage, some other family members have them in the basement. Most of my family does home canning. That really stocks up on food. Also, they rotate foods every month. HTHs a little bit!

I dont have all I am supposed to have but we also live in an 1100 sq. ft. house with 6 of us and one on the way. We just recently bought some land and built a shop for my husbands business that has plenty of storage space. Now I just have to get back to getting it all stocked back up. We also have a garden this year and will can/store alot of that.

I'm just now learning some about the LDS faith.

Can someone briefly explain why you have to store food?

Thanks,

Becca

In case of a global emergency or other natural disaster that renders the food supply chain unavailable.

Or in case your dh(or whoever makes the bulk of the income) loses their job, becomes injured/disabled or if you are just generally short on funds-you still have food so you dont have to worry about groceries.

In the event of a disaster as mentioned above, one would or at least should share their food with their neighbors.

You dont HAVE to store food, someone from the church doesnt come inspect your house and take inventory to make sure you are, but its just a really really good idea to do it logically speaking.

Is it "doctrine"? Or is it just something "smart/logical" that the Church encourages their family to do?

(It is a good plan -- I just don't know many people that would (A .) have the storage space for such, or (B .) have the money to do it very well either. I know that we couldn't!

And in case of a global emergency, I would think we'd have MANY concerns -- not just food supply. So, does the church also encourage (or is it doctrine) to save up medicine supplies, water, buy generators, guns, etc?

Thanks for shairng. I love learning about what others believe and why.

Interesting that this thread would come up when last week our Relief Society message was about this.

There was a quote by President Kimball (Rebecca he was our prophet before he died, so I'd say this is "doctrine") that said there would come a time that it would be as necessary for us to have food storage as it was for those in Noah's time to get on the ark.

That quote hit me SO powerfully. I guess until that moment, *I'd* never thought it was real "doctrine", but rather important suggestions.

One of the things they offered was a list of everything you need for a years supply for 2 people - by spending $5 weekly.

Obviously some families were too huge to buy everything they needed (one sister has 8 children) so we were encouraged to begin by just buying for 2 people - $5 a week seems fairly reasonable.

Since there are 5 people in my own family, a year from now when I have food storage for 2 of us, I'll start working for the next 2 - or if by then we can afford $7.50 a week, for 3 people.

For me that means in 2 years I'll finally be fully living this commandment.

I have no idea where I'll store it all but I'm really going to do it! That quote was the motivation I needed.

Also, Rebecca, water is part of the food storage program, but as far as medical supplies, etc., I'm not sure. I haven't read through the whole list ;) and it's just the basics, I think to start with.

We are counseled to have medical supplies, cash, etc also but I think food is the one that's always emphasized. I do not have enough for my family and I need to work on that. We are supposed to rotate the food, also, by using food from our storage and then replenishing it so it is never wasted.

Very fascinating information ladies...

Thank you for sharing with an "insider looking in." I've enjoyed learning about your faith very much. I find it quite fascinating, more so than many other "in the mainstream" faiths. So, thanks again... and good luck with that food storage!!! ;)

Yes, we have ours. Most of it is in the girl's bedroom. We are going to be closing in our porch to store it in the next year or two. Having a place to put it is a hard thing.

We got ours a little at a time. Really, once you have it you have a lot more freedom as far as grocery shopping goes. All the basics that we rotate are so much cheaper for us because we bought them in bulk. things like rice, sugar, flour, wheat, oats, milk, etc. We also have lots of Ragu, pasta, tuna, choc. chips, dried fruits, peanut butter to make things a little nicer if we have to use our storage. We also try and keep enough water for 2 weeks. I say try because we drink the same water so somtimes we let too many jugs get empty before refilling them.

If we have a tight month I just rotate more than usual to keep our food costs down. It is a great feeling to know that if there were a family or comunity/globel emergency we would have food to eat. I'm greatful for the peace it gives me knowing that I could feed my family in difficult times.

The church also has counceled us to get out of debt. Our church really tries to help each member be self sufficient. If there were an emergency I would not be standing in line for food/water for my family because I already have provided for them and we would be sharing with others. Even the welfare program is not long term help, just enough to get the member back on their feet so that they can provide for themselves.

we dont have a full years worth...but we do try really hard. we have a good start anyway on some items.

Isnt there a list of what to get extra at the store every week to put in with your FS stuff? If you follow that list for a year youll have this much or that for this amount of people...I remember years ago getting this in a R.S. meeting...( i dont think its called R.S. anymore sorry) Does anyone have this and can you post it here if you do???? :)

Twisti--yes, RS is still called relief society

Oh okay didnt know...someone mentioned the same was changed....its been years since ive went... :eek:

I have not read responses.....

I'm still a member of the LDS church (decided to not go through the pain of having my name formally removed) but I'm not active anymore.

We had SCADS of food stogage back when we were active members!!! Half of our garage was devoted to food storage of the big #10 cans that many items are in that you get from the church storehouse. Then I'd buy one extra of other items nearly every time I went grocery shopping.

I'd date each item when I bought (or canned) it and then I'd rotate the food and tried to use it and replace it so it did not just sit for a decade, KWIM?

Our tax returns were almost always used each year to buy up a bunch more that we needed. One year we used it to buy the generator. (that was after we felt we had a pretty good supply of food stored up)

Our biggest challenge was medications. Our pharmacy (and medical plan) did not agree that we needed to have extra months supply of the really critical medications. I bet it would have been easier had we lived in a LDS area where our doctor and pharmacist were LDS. (but we'd have had to pay out of pocket since I'm sure our medical plan would not agree to pay) Hope that made sense.

I had scads of fabric stored and clothing. That was a difficult one to meet....also I never had enough toilet paper. We had tons of shampoo and toothpaste!!! *lol* Now I use cloth "toilet paper"...duh, should have thought of that back when we were facing the toilet paper storage challenge!!!

Water was the most difficult thing for us. We opted to have some stored and rotated it, but kept items needed to purify water on hand since it was not possible to store a years supply of water for a family of eight. We had a good amount stored at one point and the containers burst and we lost it all.....they were stored indoors in a clean/safe area and we never did figure out why the containers (most of them) burst. After that incident is when we decided to store a little water and just have purification means on hand instead.

We did also have our 72 hour packs. That is one thing I still kind of have up and running. Where we live (rural Wyoming) you HAVE to have survival items in your vehicle if you travel anywhere in the winter months. So, I still do have what is like a 72 hour pack in our vehicle when we travel in late fall, winter, and early spring. (we had a snowstorm last week!!)

Boy, were we inventive (like many LDS families) when we lived in apartments!!! Our "endtables" were actually many #10 cans stacked on each other with a pretty fabric cloth covering them. We also had food storage under every single bed in our home and also everywhere else you can imagine.

We did not have a well balanced years supply at any point in time but I really think we could have survived on what we had for the most part.

What did we do with our food storage when we left the church? If anyone is wondering.......we used up what we could. We donated a HUGE amount of canned items (the #10 cans) back to the local church and asked them to please give them to needy LDS families. It can be very stressful when you are dirt poor and are expected to store up a years supply of food and other items. So that is why we donated and requested that it be given to needy LDS families. I hope that is what was done with our food storage, we gave it in good faith and hoped our request would be honored.

I'm going to scan the other responses now...I'll probably see that here I am blabbing away and I am totally off topic at this point.

:lol:

Michelle

to save up medicine supplies, water, buy generators, guns, etc?

Thanks for shairng. I love learning about what others believe and why.

Rebecca,

Yes, after food.......if you have a family member who has medication that is NECESSARY to live, you are told to store that also. That was our biggest hurdle back when I was active LDS. We have one child on medication that is necessary but could not get extra bottles filled. (pharmacist and doc would not go for that)

We also got a generator with a tax return one year. So, the years supply does indeed go beyond just food and water.

I never read anything about needing a gun, however. But it would make sense if all hell was breaking loose. The commandment is for what others said, but also is along the lines of "end times" thinking.

Michelle

Oh okay didnt know...someone mentioned the same was changed....its been years since ive went... :eek:

I bet you are thinking about "Homemaking Meeting"....that name was changed. I'm not sure what it was changed to since it was changed right about the time we stopped attending. I remember at that time, the church was also counseling RS to not do so many crafty things at Homemaking Meeting.

Michelle

Homemaking Meeting is now Personal Home and Family Enrichment Meeting(or something very close to that lol). Most just shorten that to Enrichment meeting though

Yup okay yall are right, thats what i was thinking...pardon my brain deadedness....

Thanks to everyone for their responses! Somehow my brain hadn't hit on the concept of that there are other places in your home to store it all LOL

So does no one have the list of what your posta get extra a week to add to your storage???? Ive seen it somewhere .......

The best suggestion I have is to get a copy of the book Making the Best of Basics....at least I think that is the title. I'm at my dh's school right now using his computer and I am not sure how to open a second window to go to Amazon to search on it.

Anyway, it is the best book on the topic I have ever seen and I still have my copy handy.

Michelle

Thanks!!!

We never had food storage until we moved to California and a friend introduced me to the local bulk grain place. The bread flour was SO much better than what you could buy in the store (because they sell to bakeries and such) and it was all so much cheaper . . . I bought 50 lb bags of baking soda and used that in the wash -- it made the Tide last three times as long because I could use a lot less of it.

Now I'm a big fan of food storage for the financial reasons. Since my income fluctuates so much, it's really nice having good food stored in the basement to make use of. And since we really use it, I'm much more careful to store stuff we'd really want to eat if we had to live on it <grin>.

In California we definitely didn't have more than a month or two of food storage, but we had so little storage space and dh would never have been okay with the #10 cans as end tables solution :)

Here I have a root cellar I can use. It's on my list of things to do this week to finish cleaning it out and start painting it. I don't think it's been painted in twenty years at least. The floor still has white wash all over it (I'm going to use the steam cleaner to go after that. Mopping was getting me nowhere.)

Before I moved to this home 9 months ago, yes, I had a full year supply for myself and 5 children. I also had a full 2 weeks water supply. I can't tell you what a PITA all that was at moving time. I sold/donated nearly every bit of it, and told my mom "never again!!"

I used the basic guidelines for grains and such, but also used common sense. We did NOT need 8 lbs of salt per year. LOL. I also bought just the basics I knew we liked. Lots of oatmeal and calrose rice! Lots of wheat, and a manual grinder (still have that, need to sell it!). Spices, lest we die from boredom. Like most Utah homes, I had a basement w/a large laundry room someone had already built "food storage shelves" into. ;) It held almost all of it.

It wasn't very expensive. In utah, every summer at least there are great sales at local grocery stores for food storage items. You can get things for cheap!! If you choose to buy expensive, freeze dried foods, or lots of canned veggies and things, it will eat up your space and eat up your money. Once I stopped concentrating on canned goods and more "fluff" items, I had my yrs supply in no time. THEN I could fill in w/the other stuff.

Also, yes, in Utah you can get docs to write Rx's for extra meds. That's just good planning for ANYone! But here in this state it's easier.

One of our foxy FS posters told a story I keep in mind about FS. She had a friend who had a year's supply in and some debt hanging over her head. So said friend used the FS to feed the family, then used the money budgeted for groceries to pay off the debt. About the time the food ran out, the debt was gone.

I don't have much FS. I try and buy two of what I need at a time to build up some FS. I have two months worth of FS for the pets :D I feel like I am working on the basics of the faith, so FS will come in a bit, LOL!

Okay stupid question alert here....

How do you know how long stuff will stay good? I mean pasta, rice, sugar stuff like that does go bad right???? Sorry about the braindeadedness....

check out providentliving.com (I think that's the url) That's where we got our weekly list and several facts and ideas including rotation, etc.

Okie Dokie thanks....