Inspired by another thread...stockpiling A LOT of food ???

[dixipixi]

Someone asked about the run on grocery stores in the South just before a hurricane. This is why I do it...

It is VERY hot and humid here. These are not good conditions for food storage. I personally don't keep a stockpile of food in my home. First of all, I don't have a super huge pantry and basements are non-existant around here. I don't like to keep alot of food in the freezer, because after two days of no power in over 90 degree weather, everything thaws and you have a huge mess.

Before Katrina, I went to the store and bought some canned goods. Did me a lot of good because due to damage, I couldn't get to my pantry for one week. Thank goodness for friends, family, and community. Everyone around here worked together. We tried to cook as much meat as we could from the freezers before they thawed. We accumulated our canned goods and shared. When one person made a run for ice/water, they returned with enough for everyone. From my personal experience, sharing pulled us through what the planning and preparation could not.

 

[Kay1]

I started when I first read about the possibility of a global peak in oil production and the resulting rise in gasoline prices. I read about this a year ago and prices sure have risen. The average food item we Americans eat travels about 1,400 miles to reach our tables so it's likely prices will continue to rise. I know that may sound kooky to some, but that's how I got started.

Now I'm in the habit I find it helps save money. I have lots of staples stashed around my house so if I needed to, I could skip shopping trips. (I live in Florida and need to keep food inside the house so I have several pantries throughout the house.) Now I shop by purchasing loss leaders from the supermarkets near my house. I check out the ads they send to my house, compare them to the coupons I have on hand, and plan my menus that way.

I have countless water jugs in the garage that I purchased one week at a time and should a hurricane approach I can just fill them and not have to compete with the last minute shoppers.

Also, this helps me pay cash for luxuries or unexpected bills. For example, one of my sons is in the IB program which will save us a fortune in college tuition. He struggled last year but has rededicated himself this year. We think he's going to bring home a good report card this weekend and want to celbrate with an expensive meal in his favorite Japanese steakhouse. I told my husband we can pay in grocery cash because I can pare down this week's shopping to $20 or so dollars.

For those interested in food storage one thing you hear a lot is store what you eat and eat what you store.

 

[disneysteve]

We don't stockpile food for emergency purposes. We do buy in bulk to take advantage of sales so we have a stock of non-perishables in the kitchen closet and downstairs in the pantry.

By the way, what happened to that other post? It seems to have vanished.

 

[DMRick]

Oops..I responded on it late last night..never to be seen again.

 

[justcruisin]

I can't believe the other thread went poof (I could not find it either). I hope the OP makes out ok. It was a very interesting thread with lots of support in it. I learned soooo much from it!

Hopefully the OP will keep us posted.

diana

 

[tar heel]

I really hope everything works out okay for the OP on the other thread. I don't think cancelling the Disney trip is a realistic option to her since they had rented a house with other people and were going so soon. Perhaps they will be able to have a wonderful, but budget trip, and come back energized and ready to tackle their problems. I hope she figures out a way to bring in more income b/c that and taking drastic measures, such as moving, seem to be her only options over the long term. Car repairs, medical bills, etc., are ALWAYS going to come up -- I didn't know a week ago that I would be spending $220 for brakes yesterday!

I learn so much on the DIS -- I had no idea that tithing was such an important element of LDS.

 

[DisneyDreamer2]

As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, my family follows the counsel to keep a years supply of food, water, and hygeine essentials.

We store water in large 55 gallon drums that we keep in the garage. We keep 10 gallon buckets of essentials such as wheat, oats, pasta, rice, flour, sugar and beans. We also store many things in 10lb cans such as soup mix, hot cocoa mix, garden seeds, pudding mix, powdered milk, popcorn, hard candies, onion flakes, dehydrted friuts, etc. I buy these things in bulk when on sale at Costco or our bulk supermarket and can them at home with the supplies I purchased from a local container company and sometimes I buy them at the local Church cannery. When we volunteer our time to can food for welfare and humanitarian causes, we can buy for ourselves from items in stock. Something I found neat though, was last week I volunteered at the cannery to can pears. Afterwards, we found out nothing was available to purchase because everything canned had been sent to offer assistance to those affected by Katrina. In fact, all of the pears we canned were being sent down immediately for relief efforts. That was a good feeling.

Anyway, we also can in glass jars -fruits, applesauce,jams and preserves and spagetti sauce. In my freezer I freeze cheese, totillas, meats, juice and large amounts of anything my family loves- including pizzas. We also keep a large supply of oils, spices, canned meats, veggies, and hygeine supplies, especially toilet paper.

Yes we rotate everything. I use a black permanent marker to mark the date purchased or canned and we always move the old stuff up. I have a wheat grinder and do make homemade bread. I decided when we started accumaliting it a bit at a time, that I would only store what we use. Even the powdered milk gets used. When we get down to a half gallon, I add a half gallon of powdered milk to it and label it cereal milk.

Where do we keep it? We have 2 large pantries, but I also have food under all the beds and on my plant shelves hidden behind decorative baskets and silk plants.

Why do we can? Because we are counseled to. It is not just for natural disasters. It's for when gas prices go up and evrything inflates, we have it. It's for if heaven forbid we lost our jobs, we'd have it. It's for when anything we need suddenly becomes in short supply, we have it. If we have neighbors or family who are struggling and we dont have money to help them, we can at least offer them food.

My Grandpa, who is not a member of my church, always tells me he doesnt need a years supply because he has a gun and knows where a Mormon lives. LOL. We store it because we believe counseled to do it from the Lord. If someone came and stole it all, we believe we will be fed somehow, because we followed His counsel. Our Church believes in sharing openly with others. And we are told that we may very well not be the ones who are blessed most because of our storage. But we are to show obedience, and the Lord will use it to bless those who need it.

So that is basically what we can, where we keep it, and why we do it. We don't go in debt to gather it. I buy things on sale, and we set aside a portion of our tax return each year to beef up anything missing. Again I only supply what we use. So it works out economically for me. And if we ever did have to live solely off of it for any reason, my family is already used to all the food.

Hope that answers some of the questions.

 

[RADOPT]

As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, my family follows the counsel to keep a years supply of food, water, and hygeine essentials.

We store water in large 55 gallon drums that we keep in the garage."

Disneydreamer2: How you you keep the water from going bad?

We are not LDS but we do live near the san andres fault - so we store. We have food, etc for 2 - 4 weeks. We rotate all of it. We keep it the garage and house - just incase we can't get to one part, some will still be available. We also have waterproof matches and charcole for the bbq. We know to have atlease 72 hour work of stock incase of another large earthquake.

 

[ElizaB39]

Wow, this thread has gotten so interesting. I had no idea stockpiling was such a "science". Really intriguing.

 

[DisneyDreamer2]

We buy special tablets from the same company we buy the water barrels from called Redi Chlor but we have seen them online too. They are a safe, drinkable cholrine type tablet. The main ingredient is 70% Calcium Hypochlorite.They are about 8.00 for the pack of 100. It is one tablet per 5 gallons of water. We fill them with a special hose too as not to contaminate the drinking water with the materials used in regular garden hoses.

We also keep a 72 hour kit with food, clothing. water, matches and trash bags and a hygeine and first aid kit. We also keep copies of important records, spare keys, and a small amount of cash in it, in case we were ever evacuated or had to get out quickly.

In these cases we store water in old pop 2 liter bottles (do not use old milk containers and never store water in these containers on concrete, put a piece of plywood between the water and the concrete if you store in the garage. Disenfect the pop bottle first with a teaspoon of bleach and hot water, This type of water should be rotated every 6 months minimum. The drums only need to be rotated every 5 years.

I grew up in Southern California and had my share of earthquakes. I can't see being prepared ever as a bad thing. as long as we use what we store, and are not going into debt to accumulate it, I think its very practical and economical.

 

[ceecee]

My aunt lived through the Great Depression when sugar and things were rationed out. Later, she stockpiled sugar in big tins, she had a huge pantry with coffee and detergents and anything you could want. She also had 15 pies in the freezer and tons of meat. She also hid money in the house because of her not fully trusting banks. She had money in six banks too, I guess she fiquired they wouldn't all go under. She dated all of the stuff, but we all teased her about it. Now we know she did it for all of us (her nieces and my mom who is her younger sister) she was single and would never have needed all of that.

 

[cnaumann]

This has been a very interesting thread. I have been thinking of keeping a couple of week of food stockpiled, some of the ideas and reasons here are very interesting. I really like the idea of a 72 hour kit is very interesting, that will be one of my first priorities.

DisneyDreamer2, how many 55 gallon drums of water do you store? Do you Chlorinate it regularly or just before use?

 

[DisneyDreamer2]

We chlorinate the water when filling the drums so it does not stagnate or grow bacteria. You do not to add more chlorine tablets as long as the drum is sealed. We, personally have 20 of the 55 gallon drums of water. We are lucky and have a four car garage. So we lined them up against one wall and built shelving above them.

For those interested in 72 hour kits. Here is a list we use to assemble it. Don't let it be overwhelming, but if you want to start one, here is a good list.
And Disers,of all people LOL, can pack a lot of things in a small space, I've read a lot of what to pack threads. The container you choose should be portable. Make sure it is light enough to carry. Large backpacks or Duffel bags work great and I keep our basic camping supplies such as a tent and sleeping backs in 2 rubbermaid containers next to the 72 hour kit bags at the exit in the garage..

*6 gallons of water
*method of water purification
*72 hour supply of food- such as canned chili, hot chocolate packets,
granola bars, other canned goods
*waterproof matches
*tent/shelter
*sleeping bags or wool blend blankets
*lightweight stove and fuel
*small mess kit for cooking with plastic bowls and utensils
*ponchos
*large black plastic trash bags
*duct tape
*flashlight with batteries
*candle
*pocket knife
*small shovel
*hatchet or ax
*sewing kit
*50 foot nylon rope
*first aid kit with child and adult medicines, sunscreen, and bug repellant
*a 1 month supply of any prescription medications
*bottle of potassium iodide tablets
*radio with batteries
*cell phone or 2 way radios
*whistle with neck cord
*hygeine kit- soap, handtowl, toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, razor, feminine
supplies or baby diapers and wipes if needed.
*toilet paper
*a complete outfit of seasonal appropriate clothing for each family
member- incl extra socks underwear, gloves, hat and sturdy shoes
*At least 20.00 in cash and 5.00 in quarters for phone calls
*copies of important documents and phone numbers in a water proof bag
(birth certificates, insurance papers, etc)
*spare keys (tape in lid)If you have to get out fast you don't want to have to
hunt for the keys
*notebook of paper and pens
*inspirational books, games, small toys, and hard candy



Hope this helps if you are looking at putting one together.

 

[graygables]

I will admit, I was a HUGE sucker for the whole Y2K thing, but I was the most prepared person in my town that night! I even learned how to cook over the new fireplace DH built for when we lost power.

That said, I learned a LOT about stockpiling that year, most importantly, do not stockpile what is not in your regular diet. If you don't eat beans, don't store beans (even though it's a logical choice). If you don't even know what TVP is (or how to prepare it), do NOT add it to your storage just b/c some website tells you it's good to have on hand.

I no longer have the huge stockpile I did then (hey, the picante sauce we finished up last week was good! ), but I am starting my annual Fall stock up for when my DH is off this winter. He has been off for 3-4 months every year for the past 5 years and it's just easier if I have the food bought and stored already...one less thing to worry about. I do can (I have 56 jars of green beans at the moment) as much as possible and I have a chest freezer, so I stock up on sale or when I make a run to Sam's Club, divvy up the package and put some away for Winter. The one thing I need to improve is water storage...I still have flashbacks of emptying all those gallon jugs into the washing machine after Y2K

 

[grlpwrd]

My cousins are LDS and I have learned a lot from them. I have even used my stockpile when my hubby got laid off - and he has been laid off about 5 times as that is common in his industry.

I have a huge stockpile stored all throughout the house, such as 7 gallon water jugs in my bathroom under the sink counter and 10 # cans of food in my cool closet. I make sure to distribute my supplies around the house because in case of a natural disaster if some gets damaged somehow we are still able to have other things still intact.

It's a matter of survival...

 

[disneysteve]

By the way, what happened to that other post? It seems to have vanished.

FYI: The OP asked to have the other thread removed. Apparently, she realized that she had family members who use DIS and she felt there was too much personal info in the thread.

Hey, I don't think I ever quoted myself before. Neat!

 

[minkydog]

I have a question about stockpiling food. I was looking over the list of foods to store and noticed that most of them are high in sodium. My DH has serious heart disease--4 days on this diet would send him to the hospital.Most of what we eat is fresh so i can control the amount of sodium. Is there a company which makes low-sodium foods for storage?

 

[ElizaB39]

My aunt lived through the Great Depression when sugar and things were rationed out. Later, she stockpiled sugar in big tins, she had a huge pantry with coffee and detergents and anything you could want. She also had 15 pies in the freezer and tons of meat. She also hid money in the house because of her not fully trusting banks. She had money in six banks too, I guess she fiquired they wouldn't all go under. She dated all of the stuff, but we all teased her about it. Now we know she did it for all of us (her nieces and my mom who is her younger sister) she was single and would never have needed all of that.

I got chills when I read this, she loved you so much!

 

[RADOPT]

I have a question about stockpiling food. I was looking over the list of foods to store and noticed that most of them are high in sodium. My DH has serious heart disease--4 days on this diet would send him to the hospital.Most of what we eat is fresh so i can control the amount of sodium. Is there a company which makes low-sodium foods for storage?

I don't know which complany make low-sodium food or how "low" it needs to be. There are a number of items in the supermarket that are low-sodium. You could make the food and freeze it. If you keep the fridge closed and it is full, the temp doesn't rise quickly. We freeze water also, when the power goes off it helps keep it cold. We keep alot of soup frozen (my daughter hates can soup), etc that is homemade. We also store backpacking food.