Why Food Storage?

You may be thinking, why do I need food storage.  Whats the point?  Why do I need it?  What reason is there to store food?  I am going to talk about just that!  Hopefully you will learn of the value of having food storage. 

Why would you need food storage?  There are several different, yet good/valid reasons to have it.  Some of them are:

• Religious beliefs
• Job loss
• Inflation
• Weather
• Crop Failure
• Natural Disaster

These are only some of the reasons.  There are many more and your reason for storing food will be different from someone else. There are no wrong/bad reasons for having a food storage and being prepared.

My reason for having my food storage started out because of my religious views.  My church from the beginning has told us to build a food storage.  That is why I STARTED and partially why I am still doing it.  I am also doing it for a combination of the other reasons I listed.

With the way the economy is you dont know if you or your spouse could loose your job.  If you and/or your spouse lost your job how would that effect your life?  Will you still have enough money to provide your most basic needs?  Will you be able to  put food on the table?  If you have some food saved you wont have to be as worried as far as that is concerned.  Maybe you dont loose your job but maybe your boss is asking you to take a pay cut.  That hurts.  The more you can do NOW the more it will help you later. 

Prices of food are going up!  I`m not sure about you but that hurts my family.  Even if I just buy 1 extra can of corn today.  Tomorrow it may cost more.  So not only have I saved money but I am also helping to build my food storage.

Weather.  This is a big one.  This past winter I went to the store to get some things for a vacation I was about to go on.  When I got there it was PACKED!  I asked the cashier why it was so busy and she looked at me like I was crazy.  She said we have a snow storm coming.  People want to get food in case they get stuck at home.  The thought did NOT even cross my mind. I have plenty of food at home there was no reason for me to run to the store to get food in case I was stuck at home.  I have what we need.  Say you don't have food storage so you go to the store before the storm hits and you buy food.  The storm comes and it is WAY bigger than they predicted.  Now you are stuck at home for a week.  Did you buy enough food?

Crop failure and weather go hand in hand.  The weather will make or break our crops.  If we have more than normal freezing or a wetter than normal year it can ruin/destroy the crops.  Which then the price of our food is going to rise and you will be paying more at the register. 

Natural Disaster.  There is so much I could say about food storage and a natural disaster.  There are natural disasters happening all around us.  The huge earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the tornados in the USA, and the list could go on and on.  Yes, the Red Cross goes in and helps out people that have been affected my a natural disaster but if you could do your part by preparing your family you would be one less person that would need help. 

Our stores these days do NOT have days worth of food in their stores.  In the event of a natural disaster, or even just a predicted storm, the shelves in the stores will and are empty with in hours.....HOURS!!  Will you have time to make it to the store before the shelves are empty?  Will there be anything left that you and your family can/will eat?

For me, when I think/talk about food storage I also include things you need to live.

• toilet paper
• soap
• personal hygiene items
• laundry soap

You get the picture.  ANYTHING you need to live, you should have stored.  Not only is it there in case of any of the above mentioned reasons but it SUCKS to be doing laundry and realize that you have just run out of soap, or you go to start your dishwasher and you dont have any dish soap left.  Now you have to spend the money on gas, which is crazy expensive, and the time to run to the store.  If you had just stored it and gotten it when it was on sale you would be able to go to your cupboard and grab a new bottle.

Water is also an important thing to store.   If your water supply is cut off or the water is polluted you NEED to have water.  Buy an extra case of bottled water, fill containers of water.  Do something.  You can only go 3 days with out water.  Not only do you need water to drink but you need water to wash your dishes, flush your toilet ect.  It doesn't take much to store water!

I hope this has given you some in site on to why it is a good reason to store food.  It doesn't have to be hundreds of pounds of wheat, all though I do have a few hundred pounds of wheat, just buying an extra can of soup.  Or extra meat when it is on sale.  A little bit here and a little bit there will add up quickly!