President Spencer W. Kimball emphasized the practical concepts when he taught, “Preparedness, when properly pursued, is a way of life, not a sudden, spectacular program. We could refer to all the components of personal and family preparedness, not in relation to holocaust or disaster, but in cultivation a life-style that is on a day-to-day basis its own reward.”

However! Tonight, when the evening news reported more freezing rain, temperatures continuing to drop below freezing, and snow throughout the weekend with another arctic blast expected on Sunday, I felt a lot of peace knowing that my daughter’s little rental cottage is well stocked with food that could be shared with our neighbors.

Storms happen. Building and maintaining a viable food storage simply means we are better able to deal with those storms and help others in times of need. I’m so glad that more and more people are beginning to see that logic, and opportunity. I’m thankful for the inspired leadership which has been actively teaching the principles of provident living for decades!

From the All Is Safely Gathered In pamphlet:

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

Our Heavenly Father created this beautiful earth, with all its abundance, for our benefit and use. His purpose is to provide for our needs as we walk in faith and obedience. He has lovingly commanded us to “prepare every needful thing” (see D&C 109:8) so that, should adversity come, we may care for ourselves and our neighbors and support bishops as they care for others.

We encourage Church members worldwide to prepare for adversity in life by having a basic supply of food and water and some money in savings. (A warm hello to new readers visiting this site from China, Finland, Bolgaria and South Africa!)

We ask that you be wise as you store food and water and build your savings, Do not go to extremes; it is not prudent, for example, to go into debt to extablish your food storage all at once. With careful planning, you can, over time, establish a home storage supply and a financial reserve.

We realize that some of you may not have financial resources or space for such storage. some of you may be prohibited by law from storing large amounts of food. We encourage you to store as much as circumstances allow.

May the Lord bless you in your home storage efforts. The First Presidency

What’s not to love?

Years ago, I took an excellent series of classes, from a true food storage maven. Anne taught me that in Utah, because of how dry the climate is, bags of wheat may be slid into a large Rubbermaid garbage can, stacking about 3 or 4 bags on top of each other while the can is laying down, on its side on the ground, and then you just stand the thing up and pop the lid on.

Something to think about if you need to buy wheat and are short on funds or the time to get it canned. We’ve done this in the past and then gone back and canned the product later.

I’m so glad we began buying wheat when our children were little. Even though we didn’t have extra money, we just kept buying a little bit every few months and slowly, over the years, our supply grew into the amount suggested by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. What we learned during 25 years of marriage is that we never seemed to have ‘extra’ money. So starting early made a huge difference.

As I’m writing these blog posts I’m able to share the little bits I’ve learned about building a food storage that can simplify the daily routine, starting right now, and also bless family and neighbors in times of need. My tracking website tells me that I’m getting traffic from Canada, Great Britain, Poland, Germany, Sweden, Japan, Saudi Arabia, India, France, Russian Federation, Czech Republic, Romania, Panama, Australia, and Denmark. I’m thrilled and amazed!

If anyone is interested in learning more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the inspired counsel that encourages provident living, please visit www.lds.org or www.providentliving.org for more information. I’m thankful for both spiritual and temporal guidance that encourages all members, over 13 million worldwide, to organize their families and prepare a minimal amount of storage. When it comes to something as vital as food, it only makes sense to maintain a plan that is independent of what the government and grocery store can provide.

That’s the method some people use for building their food storage, which is fine if it works for them. I’m not an especially creative cook. I need to plan my meals and practice cooking a relatively small number of dishes in order to become comfortable with the preparation, and fast.

Besides that, in the event of an emergency, I don’t want to be trying to figure out, under pressure, what to cook with random ingredients. We don’t do that when we plan meals for vacations. The food for a trip to the mountains, lake, or cabin is planned well in advance with extensive lists. We purchase only the ingredients we’re actually planning to serve. Why would we plan so carefully for vacations and then plan to wing it during an emergency?

Even if you start with only one dinner, buy all the ingredients that can be stored in groups of three, and then make a specific plan for eating it, like the first Monday of each month, you will become more organized, more prepared, and more capable. As soon as you have one recipe organized into the process of food storage, move on to a second and third meal, and then just keep going.

Every time I use my food storage it’s like a cooking fire drill. Why wait for the emergency?

Designing a three-month supply is the best way I know to create your very own take and bake kitchen. Just think of the easy meals from your family’s favorites and start buying the dried, canned, or bottled ingredients in groups of three. Hopefully the recipes will call for, or could be laced with, a little wheat, rice, beans, pasta, or potatoes from your long-term storage so that those ingredients naturally get rotated. If you design your family’s selection of meals you eat regularly and enjoy and then purchase all the short-term storage ingredients in groups of three, you’ll automatically be building a three-month supply of every-day meals. And you don’t have to wear mascara or boots to cook dinner. What’s not to love?