Food Storage Christmas
This Christmas our family gift is a years’ supply of food storage –and I’m thrilled to have it.
I decided I’ll also be giving the gift of food storage to my family and friends. No I’m not buying it (although I think a box or a bucket of wheat makes a tremendous gift idea), but I do offer my time as a resource in food planning and food packing. (For anyone who has canned their own food, you know this has potential to be a major time commitment.) The offer is good until next Christmas, but please give me a call right away so we can get you started today.
For those of you who are not my family and friends, I’d still like to help you with your food storage planning; basically determining what food items you’ll need and where you can buy them. I’ll point to a few resources in case you want to do it yourself, but please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or just need help getting started. I was relieved to have a great friend who talked me through it, and I’d like to pass the favor along.
For anyone who wants to get started on there own emergency food storage, you should check out he following resources:
StockUpFood.com is a free food storage calculator that helps you determine your emergency food planning needs based on family size and how much food storage you would like, whether you want enough for just 1-month or 2 years. StockUpFood.com also helps you track what food storage items you buy (and use) so you can keep a running total of what you need to purchase –plus it gives you a “percentage completed” to help you track progress toward your goal. Very cool –especially for people that want to ease their way into emergency food storage.
The LDS church also has some great resources their provident living website. By far the most useful resource there (for me) was an order form for the dry-packed food products, which are purchasable in bulk sized bags or by the can. It’s easy to fill out out (using the food storage calculator I linked to above), and you can just bring it along to at any Family Home Food Storage location. There you can buy the vast majority of your food storage in large bags, and you can get them at a pretty great price. And if you want your emergency food canned (for longer storage and easy rotation) you can dry-pack can it right on location and just take home the items you need. This is a lot of work, but if you’re doing canned food (instead of bags or buckets) it’s by far the most convenient way to go. You can also buy it pre-canned, (which is even more convenient) but you’ll end up paying more.
The Lindon LDS Family Home Food Storage is only open on Tuesdays and Thursday, but you’ll want to call to check availability in your location. They also lend dry-pack canning equipment out, in case you’ve already purchased food in bags but want it canned.
I should mention that many grocery stores (at least in Utah) have foods like dry wheat and beans by the bucket and the bag. Selection is fairly sparse, and buying a full years’ worth of food would take up several grocery carts; but it can be done. I bought a lot of bulk food stuff at Macey’s, a local grocery chain which has pretty good prices. I wish I’d held off on some of the bagged food I got there since I still want to dry-pack can most of it anyway, but the buckets are a great way to get a little at a time if you need to stretch out your food storage purchases over several paychecks. You can also get large water basins, wheat grinders, empty buckets, and other equipment there as well.
Lastly, if you live in Utah and are (or would like to become) an emergency preparedness junkie, check out UtahPreppers. It’s new, but judging by the people who run it, I think it will probably be a pretty great resource.
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Not For Profits, Utah | 
November 30, 2008 10:26 pm
By Bruce Hopkins, December 1, 2008 @ 7:25 am
If you’re interested, there are canned meats, canned cheese and canned butter available at http://www.internet-grocer.net/product.html
By Tristan Rhodes, December 1, 2008 @ 10:39 am
I have recently become very interested in preparing for emergencies, so please continue sharing information on this topic. I am researching the best ways to get started with food storage.
By m&m, December 1, 2008 @ 10:59 pm
This is a great idea. I’m passing the idea along.
Are you just going to focus on the staples, or going to help people sort through their three-month needs (what they actually eat) plus the longer-term needs?
For what it’s worth, I’ve shared some of my own three-month supply ideas (shopping and cooking ideas) here. I think sometimes people are so overwhelmed with the notion of having basics they rarely use (wheat, beans, powdered milk) that it’s good to start with the three-month supply and help them see that food storage doesn’t have to equal food that tastes (or that they think tastes) like cardboard. :)
By Jodi, December 1, 2008 @ 11:42 pm
Great idea. I’ve been toying with a few gift ideas like ingredients for food storage meals in a jar, or homemade jam with whole wheat bread, etc. But your idea teaches them to fish instead of just giving them some fish.
By Jordy, December 2, 2008 @ 8:46 am
@ m&m
“Are you just going to focus on the staples, or going to help people sort through their three-month needs (what they actually eat) plus the longer-term needs?”
I’ll be focusing primarily on longer-term storage, but I also have an upcoming post on ideas for acquiring a 3-month supply as cheaply as possible.
By Rebecca, December 2, 2008 @ 12:58 pm
Hey! Great post. I work for http://www.shelfreliance.com and would be happy to work with you on group orders and pricing. I also have some great coupon codes that I could pass along. If you have not tried our food and are interested in a sample, send me an email with your address to rebeccasusannepickett@gmail.com
By Tristan Rhodes, December 5, 2008 @ 1:31 pm
Rebecca,
I would love to try the food and use a coupon code. Please email me with more information.
tristan@witenko.com
Tristan
By Jason, December 17, 2008 @ 5:05 pm
Hey Jordan,
Thanks for giving StockUpFood.com a shout out! I built it for my wife and I since trying to get 1 years supply of food seemed pretty overwhelming. I have noticed a very positive response since I launched it. Feel free to email me any suggestions you might have.
Thanks again!
By Dawn, November 14, 2009 @ 11:09 am
I agree with the comment from m&m above, “I think sometimes people are so overwhelmed with the notion of having basics they rarely use (wheat, beans, powdered milk)…”. With that in mind I would like you to check out a new way of looking at how to build your food storage – tailored to your families way of eating, with or without wheat! Go to http://www.apreparedhome.com and go to the Food Storage Worksheet, under the Calculator section in the upper left box. It is not the same calculator or set of food storage worksheets that you find posted everywhere. Instead, this is a unique one-of-a-kind program where you make a list of recipes your family eats regularly, type in the recipes with the amounts, easily transfer the amounts to a spreadsheet and the spreadsheets will automatically figure out what your family needs for three months, six months or a year – and its FREE! There is also a spreadsheet for you to inventory what you already have and let you know what more you need to get.
It is the best and most comprehensive program that is easy to use and you can throw away all of your disaster/food storage cookbooks because you will have made your own Everyday-No-Matter-What-The-Situation cookbook and stored enough of what you normally eat – and you won’t need to change your eating habits. Give it a try! There is a set of simple instructions for you to print out, and with just a little time invested, you won’t have to guess how much you need, YOU WILL KNOW!