Food and Emergency Storage Preparedness

“Be prepared in all things against the day when tribulations and desolations are sent forth upon the wicked.”
Doctrine and Covenants 29:8

Monday, May 9, 2011

Why Store Food?

While there are many reasons why it is important to store a long term supply of food (i.e. you lose your job unexpectedly, a sudden natural disaster occurring, a sudden medical emergency that drains your wallet, other kind's of emergencies that demand immediate financial obligation), what I will be focusing on mainly is the need for storage due to scriptural events taking place before the Second Coming (which do include many natural disasters).  We know that it's going to be trying times, but if you are prepared, everything will be ok. For the purpose of this blog, I will be focusing on *worst case scenarios*.  I'm focusing on a time when you will need to rely 100% on yourself to survive.  There will be no gas stations, no stores, no city water, no electricity etc.  


Wendy Dewitt compiled a list of the top reasons that people don't store food.  I have included them, and I have also expanded some of those ideas as well as added some more.




  • My neighbors store food, I'll just eat theirs.  
Really bad plan.  One of the worst plans you could have is a plan to eat *someone else's* food. 


  • My church can give me food. 


In the LDS church, it's estimated that the church welfare system can feed about 4% of the church's population at any given time.  ONLY 4%. I don't know about you, but I'm not willing to make that kind of risk when we're talking about 4%.  Do not plan on this.  Keep in mind that the LDS church is estimated to be the church with the largest welfare program, with the largest amount of stored food.  Other church's will not have even close to the same amount of supplies that the LDS church has, so the number of people they would be able to feed would be much, much lower.    


  • I will move in with my parents or my children. 


Again, you're planning on eating someone else's food.  Not a good plan.  Even if your family members have a food storage, it's not logical to think that they will be storing enough food to feed their whole family.  Imagine the financial burden that would create for them, anyway.  Food storage for one family is expensive enough.  


It's also not a good plan to count on moving somewhere else, either.  There are a dozen different scenarios that would prevent you from being able to band together with other people.  Yes, it's possible this could work, but there are many reasons why it wouldn't work.  For instance, if there is an epidemic or pandemic, you should not move away from where you are now.  This is a time where medical attention, antibiotics, medications etc will be scarce.  The last thing you will want to do is get a lot of people living in close proximity to each other.  That is the #1 killer during an epidemic or pandemic because close proximity and close living with other people helps disease spread like wildfire. Isolation is required in those kinds of scenarios. 


The idea of banding together and "We'll all share our food" carries one major problem: NO ONE HAS FOOD.


  • I have a year's supply... and the bullets to go with it!  


It's common that people will have this kind of mindset: "Why would I go through all of the preparation to get a year's supply of food, and then have someone with a gun come in and threaten or kill my family and take it all?"


Ask yourself this: Are you afraid of the guy with the gun? Or are you more afraid of *becoming* the guy with the gun?


What would you do if you were watching your children starve to death?  I guarantee you would lie, you would cheat, your would steal, and I promise you, you will become "the guy with the gun".  Just looking at pictures of starving children in Africa, or looking at pictures of the jewish ghettos and concentration camps during the Holocaust makes me physically ill, especially if I think about *my* children starving to death and possibly looking like THAT.  Starving to death is a very painful way to die.  There is no way in this world I'm going to let that happen to my children.  Their safety and their lives depend on my preparation.  And it's probably true -- if I were watching my children starve to death, I would do anything to save them. 

Your spiritual salvation will depend on whether or not you have your food storage.  This is not just a physical law, this is a spiritual law. I promise you there is not anything you WOULDN'T do to save your child's life, and that could be seriously detrimental to your spiritual salvation.  

  • The boat and the 4 wheelers are taking up all my storage space!
Even if you think you don't have room to store all of these items, I promise you, you DO!  Right now I have food storage filling my plant shelves, under my bed, and under my kids' beds.  Fill every nook and cranny with food.  There are ways to do it.


  • 3 letters... Y2K --- in other words, it's not gonna happen!


Every prophesy that has ever been given in the scriptures WILL BE FULFILLED, we just don't know exactly when. It's better to be prepared and have it not happen, then have it happen and not be prepared.  Denial won't get you anywhere. 


  • If anything DOES happen, the government will be there to help within hours! 


Ok, really?  I hope that I don't even need to go into all of the problems with this one.  Unfortunately, there's a lot of people that depend on the government to save them if something bad happens.  Not a good way to be prepared because, simply, the government will not save your life. 


  • I can't afford scrapbooking AND food storage. 


We live in the richest society in the history of the earth. The standard of living that we have is AMAZING!  Even if you think you are poor, you are very wealthy compared to most of the other world. It's a matter of priorities.  You have to WANT to get a food storage, and if you want to have a food storage, you will.  


Prioritize your "extras".  Do you really need to have 2 car payments, the tanning membership, the gym membership, the satellite TV, the gaming accounts, the highest speed internet, the extra phone line(s), the cutest clothes, the cutest hair, the cutest nails, etc.  In terms of survival, prioritize what is most important.  Ask yourself What is going to save my children's lives? Cut out just a few things: don't go out to eat anymore. Go to the park on a date instead of going to a movie.  Cut out small things and it could save your life.  You are not going to want to look back, after certain events have happened, and say "I wish I would have just prepared instead of [this]."    


  • I'm waiting for the cannery to sell Papa John's dehydrated pizza!


We have a stigma for food storage, and we think that if it doesn't contain wheat and beans and powdered milk then it's not food storage.  It's possible to store what your family likes to eat.  Even chocolates, brownies, cookies, chicken alfredo, sweet and sour chicken etc, and by following this blog you can find out how.


  • "A YEAR?? I thought it was 72 hours!!"


In the church, it used to be 2 years, then it was 1 year, and then they plead with you to have even have just 3 months.  A lot of people that have a 72 hour kit think they are doin' FABULOUS.  This is about obedience. We need to be obedient.  We have been asked to have a year's supply of food so it can save our lives.  By obeying, you are teaching your children obedience.  You will teach your children that this is important, and then they will teach their children it is important, and at some point you will have saved your family's temporal and spiritual salvation by teaching then now that this is important.  If every prophecy happens in your lifetime, then you will be prepared.  However, if it's still years away, teach your children NOW that they need to have a storage of food.  By starting now, you WILL save lives, no matter when it happens to be.  

  • "I have faith that the Lord will take care of me."
Having faith that the "Lord will provide" is not a bad thing.  However, that can be a very dangerous plan if you have been asked and warned to prepare.  There is a reason that the scriptures are full of prophecies of the last days.  There is a reason why so many general authorities of the church have asked us to prepare. If we don't heed the warnings, and we choose instead to use our time and money for other things, this idea that the Lord will protect you might not hold.  Have faith that the Lord will protect and provide for you if you prepare.  






Do you have more reasons? Send them to me through the "Contact Me" tab. 

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