Food Storage: Revealed

I wanted to showcase our food storage system not only to give any helpful ideas to those also trying to get their food storage stuff started, but also to do some serious bragging on my husband. Heaven knows, when it comes to being a super good LDS guy & gal, we aren't perfect. But - when it comes to having & using our food storage system, we are pretty awesome.

Why do we have a food storage system? We've been counseled by our church leaders for many years to have a usable supply of food and water available in our home (the standard recommendation is Year Supply, though recent efforts are to get people with at least a 3 Month supply. For military, it's about 6 months). Many outside of our church think it's just in case of 'World War III' or 'Armageddon', but it's much more useful than that - - we have food storage in case of natural disasters and other similar significant events that would shut down the basic organizations for awhile. Also - and this is something readily seen today - it's to guard against times of economic trouble. Job loss, major unexpected health bills - anything that would put our finances in serious strain - are also reasons to have a reserve of food available. It's all about being prepared and attempting to be as self-reliant as possible.

Okay, I could go on and on about the 'whys' - check out this site: Provident Living for more information if still curious. I won't lie: we didn't put together our system in one afternoon and it wasn't super cheap initially (I keep saying "we" - this is really Landon's brain-child so I can't take too much credit other than using it). It involved, and still does, a little trial-and-error to figure out what works best for us. After the initial purchase of the shelving unit and the food to get started, thought, it's quite inexpensive from here on out.

The Unit

We got our handy-dandy can rotating unit from a company called Shelf-Reliance (get it? Shelf-Reliance? Cracks me up to say it out loud). We've loved this unit, but I'm sure there are others out there - the point behind it being the 'first-can-in-first-can-out' idea so that you are using things in the order you purchased them before they expire. This particular unit can be purchased for a variety of can sizes. If you want it to hold only big #10 cans, you can get that or only smaller cans or a mixture of both like we have. Sure, it's quite industrial looking - and if we ever have a large pantry just off our kitchen this sucker will go in it for sure - but until then...well it certainly is a conversation piece, it's organized nicely, and it's important.

Landon added a solid board across the top to stack even more goodness, but that is optional. Keep reading because this isn't where the food storage adventure begins - this is actually just the middle of the journey.

Stage 1: Purchasing & Initial Storing

It all begins at our local cannery and grocery store. Our church has this extensive, huge, and awesome food storage and humanitarian system in place that supplies almost all the local canneries with it's products. It's main headquarters are in Salt Lake City (called Church Welfare Services) and the smaller canneries are almost everywhere. Really, the whole system of how the church efficiently and productively cares for not only its own, but all our brothers and sisters of any faith around the world, is incredible and warrants a whole different post.

Back to the local cannery (or 'home storage center'). Our closest one is in L.A. somewhere (I haven't been with Landon to this one), but it's not too far away. There we purchase some staples of things we need in large quantities for very reasonable prices. The rules have recently changed since the only time I went with Landon a few years ago. We used to pack and seal all our own cans. Now the packing and sealing for some items is already done. An appointment is still required and it's best to bring in an updated order form to speed the time along. I've also heard that one person can no longer go in and can items for the entire ward - there is more of a time restriction I think, but I haven't confirmed that yet. All canneries are also open to the public - not just members of our church - but you still need an appointment.

Landon purchases the cans we need - depending on already depleted stock, what we like, etc. There are many resources out there, especially on that Provident Living site, that give guides on what to get when you first get started. He selects our food, seals (now just some) of the cans himself, puts them in these boxes for easy storage and stack-ability (6 cans to a box), and brings it all home.

At home, we store these boxes of cans upstairs or in less-convenient, hidden places (right now it's under our bed) because we won't need to access these cans at this stage in the process everyday. Unless you have a GINORMOUS pantry in your kitchen to store ev-er-y-thing, it's okay to put the boxes in a more out-of-the-way location. This is just the initial stage in the process and these cans won't stay here forever, but for the next two stages in the process, it's important to have the food very conveniently located for your household. And...repeat after me..."I will not store my food in a hot, cramped garage. It will make the food not last nearly as long and inevitably be a waste of money."

We only go back up to those boxes upstairs as that item gets used and we need to replenish the cans on the unit from the upstairs reserve, so not that often - once a month or less for some items.

For the smaller cans and peanut butter, we just get those at our grocery store and/or Costco. We more frequently replenish this stuff, so it's not stored upstairs - just goes from store to unit. They usually already have dates printed on them. Pretty easy there.

Stage 2: Storing on the Unit

After items are taken out of the boxes, they go on this unit. Here they sit just off the kitchen - organized and beckoning for me to use them. Since I love to bake, I've found that I constantly use the white flour, sugar, and oats. We store and use the wheat flour as well, but it's sold in kernels. We use a coffee grinder to grind it all up, though I would recommend getting a more industrial, high-powered wheat grinder (we will someday) - it produces a much finer flour than the coffee grinder.

Our Shelf Reliance unit came with these nice little magnetic tags for labeling each row. The stickers on the can list the shelf life of that can (before it's opened) and Landon writes when we purchased the product - having it all written down means not having to remember what goes bad when since all products vary slightly.

Generally, when a smaller can gets opened, it's contents are used completely at one time and the can tossed - no hassle there. But unless I'm making 300 cookies (for instance), when I open up the large can of flour, I'm not going to use it all right away. It's messy and impractical to store the large can once it is opened, so onto Stage Three.

Stage 3: Storing in the Kitchen

the sticker on these plastic containers are there just for labeling and directions (the '12/06' is just a borrowed sticker and doesn't reflect that this hot cocoa has been in this plastic container since 12/06)

This is where convenience is an absolute must. When those large cans get opened, their entire contents are put into these plastic holders and the can thrown away. Because of the size of our kitchen cabinets, we got these tall, skinny containers, but any covered, re-openable container that is able to seal well and fits the entire contents of the can is great. Landon also labeled the plastic containers with the labels from the cannery so we would know what is what. We also attached any usage instructions (as in for the pudding or the dehydrated apples). FYI: the apples are great because you can eat them right out of the package-like apple chips- or hydrate them to use in recipes.

When I run low on an item in this plastic container and need to refill it (as in the flour above), I go to the unit, grab another can, refill the plastic thing, and I'm good to go.

When I'm cooking or baking and need one of these items, this is where I go FIRST - - which is why it's so important that this be very centrally-located and convenient. If I had to go upstairs or even into just the other room for these items, I wouldn't use them very quickly - if at all. I'm lazy like that. This ensures that the food gets used - which as is seen in Stage Four - is the essence of any good food storage system.

Stage 4: Using the Food!

If not the most important step, it's tied for first: Use the items in food storage. Most food (except for the wheat kernels) have a definitive shelf life. It will expire eventually which is why you can't just cram it in your garage or closet and forget about it. Then what good is all that money and time spent? Also, by using the food you figure out what you really like and what you really will use. A time of uncertainty is not going to make you super-domestic all of a sudden and expert at incorporating food products you've never worked with. So buy what you will use in your everyday life and learn how to use what you have. Should those times happen, you'll already be accustomed to using the items - no major learning curve there. Have I belabored the point enough already?

I no longer buy flour, sugar, and some of the other dry staples we have at the grocery store. Going to the unit and/or upstairs to the boxes is my 'going to the grocery store.' Of course, we need to go back to the cannery at certain intervals to replenish those big cans, but we're talking less than three times a year or so. We use what we have and go back for more. If we find that a certain food item is not getting used very often, we will definitely not buy so much of it next time or stop buying it altogether if it never gets touched.

Even more to think about: if some problem strikes, big or small, your food preferences and attitudes won't all of a sudden change. If you hate pork & beans now, you won't suddenly look at them and think 'Yum! My favorite!' just because something crazy is going on (not to mention that those pork & beans are taking up valuable room in your storage for something you know you will eat). While it's good to branch out a little in your variety, it's more necessary to be realistic about what you and your family really will eat.

(I've even heard ideas before for storing chocolate and candy-type items - living off of canned corn and refried beans may keep you alive, but not forgetting to include the fun stuff will make it much more bearable!)

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So that's the system in a {fairly large} nutshell. We've used this system for about 3 years now and it works well for us. Landon put so much thought into this and it makes me so proud to be married to someone that cared so much about following this divine counsel that he worked hard to not only get it started, but to get us to continually use it. I didn't even mention our water storage....maybe later on that one, but he did an equally good job of thinking that through (it is more 'storage' and less 'stages', but just as important as having usable food storage).

We're always available if anyone has any questions or wants to get a personal tutorial from Landon the storage-man! (now off to eat the rest of those cookies...)