Various Approaches to Doing Food Storage

My friend asked me today if I had looked into buying long-term food storage all at once from a food storage company where you can buy a 3 month or 12 month supply that lasts for 20 years. Most of my blog followers know that I don’t store that way. But that does not mean my way is the only way. It made me think how different each of us approaches food storage. So, my analytical mind said let’s look at some various ways to do food storage to help you think which is right for you:

#1. The Quick Food Storage Approach – This group likes to order a food storage supply all at once from a company that has figured out what their family needs to store. Though not my personal choice, my husband reminds me that this works for some families who like having someone else do the research and figure out the amounts. They want to follow the counsel to store food, but prefer not to be too analytical about it and know they are probably not going to rotate it regularly. Knowing they put something aside for emergencies that will last for many years if they ever need it, works for them. Testing products first would be helpful. This is the most expensive yet quickest approach.

#2. The Emergency and Everyday Use Food Storage Approach – This group stores a supply of easy to prepare foods for short-term emergencies like power outages or floods, a three-month supply of shelf-stable foods their family uses everyday like small canned and boxed foods, and includes a year supply (if possible) of long-term storage foods such as wheat, rice, sugar, honey, dry milk, etc. They like having a variety of foods for various types of emergencies, yet they have foods on hand that their family also uses everyday so items get rotated. They store staples for cooking from scratch, but also have some convenience foods. This is my approach to food storage. I only store what my family is accustomed to cooking with or eating, yet I also use long-term staples and whole grains because they are inexpensive and store well. I like helping my kids see that we “use what we store, and store what we use.” It is more time consuming to purchase and store this way. but less expensive than approach #1, and more expensive than approach #3.

#3. The Traditional Basics Approach – This group stores enough wheat, rice, oats, honey, sugar, dry milk, etc. to survive if they had nothing else to eat. They know this approach is the most affordable for their family. They hopefully know how to use the items they store, but also know their family won’t starve. This is the least expensive food storage approach though the hardest on the body’s digestive system if you don’t regularly use your wheat.

Definitely an oversimplified analysis of food storage approaches and I know most people have a combination of them all. But I hope you can see that doing food storage your way is what is most important. Better to have stored something, than never to have stored at all.

Please share your approach!