Where's the Wheat?

Beginning a Food Storage Program

So often food storage brings to mind visions of wheat filled buckets.  But what if your family doesn't like to eat wheat?  Times of financial difficulty are stressful enough without trying to get your family to eat food they don't like.  The concept is to store what you like and eat what you store.  If your family likes freshly baked whole wheat bread, then store what you need to continue to provide that.  If your family is more likely to eat white bread, then store white flour.  A familiar and varied diet is possible to achieve from food storage.  Most of the foods that we eat on a daily basis can be stored for a year or more. 

Food storage is not a new concept.  We have been told for years to gather and store the things we would need to survive for a year.  This seems like an overwhelming task.  We have so many things to do just to get through the day, that the thought of planning and obtaining a year of food and supplies feels impossible.  Broken down into steps and goals, this daunting project can be accomplished.  Whether you are planning for one person or a large family, keep in mind what your family's needs are.  Tailor everything around those wants and needs and you will be successful.   We don't always know if or when we will ever need our food storage.  However, great peace of mind comes from careful planning.

One day my husband came home from work and announced that the company he worked for was moving overseas.  The entire company was shutting down operations here in our area and he would soon be out of a job. We were a young family with small children.  After some discussion and planning, we decided that this would be an ideal time for him to return to school to finish his degree.  We had enough money in savings and food in storage.  Our goal was to live off what we had for one year, without anyone else knowing what we were doing.  We opted to not tell our friends or our family that we were out of work, and see if we could do this without help. 

We were able to have family and friends over for dinner and take food to friends when a new baby was born or someone was ill. We were still able to feed our family well.  At the end of the year, we announced what had been going on.  Our extended family was quite surprised at how well everything had gone.  Our family ate the same foods to which we were accustomed, and we never had to change our diet.  We were able to take care of ourselves, which is the whole purpose of having a food storage. We personalized our food storage to include foods that our family enjoyed on a daily basis. This took planning and organizing, but it paid off.

Beginning a food storage program will require some thought.  First decide what your current situation is.  Do you have some food already set aside?  Are you at the beginning stages of acquiring food storage?  How much time and energy are you willing to put into storing food?  The answers to all of these questions will determine what kind of food storage plan you will have.