Why Food Storage?
When I think of food storage I used to imagine in my head a weird looking person locked up in a bomb shelter with all this canned food around them. When I tell people I am into being prepared they will ask me questions like, “Do you have cans of wheat under your bed?” There are all sorts of preconceived ideas that people have when it comes to food storage. Today I would like to share the biggest reason why I have food storage?
The likelihood that I will encounter a natural disaster that will force me to use my food storage is small. I grew up in California only miles from the San Andreas Fault line and I only encountered two big earthquakes, neither which forced us to use our food storage. This is not to say it will happen because we see it in the news everyday about some tsunami, earthquake, tornado, flood or other disaster that affect a lot of people.
The biggest reason I am inclined to have food storage is because of economic hardships. When I think of this I think of losing a job or changing a career. In 2008 the average a person stays at a job is 4.1 years. That is both voluntary and involuntary changes. That means that if you are not prepared this simple change can become an economic hardship in your life pretty fast.
I was having a conversation just yesterday with my wife about an emergency fund. I have talked before about different emergency funds in previous posts. We were talking about the one where I lose my job or become disabled for a period of time. The reason for this emergency fund is so that if I lose my job or decide to change careers I can focus on finding the right opportunity versus finding a job because I need money. We don’t make the brightest decisions when our choices are limited. I even had a close relative say to me that you should just take a job so you don’t have to worry about money. If you have a fund, you don’t have to worry and hopefully you make the right decision.
I related this conversation to my food storage. I have the food storage in case something happens. Let’s think about what are the things going through my mind if I come across economic hardships. The two biggest things I am going to think about are:
- How am I going to pay my bills? I need to think about mortgage payment, insurances, auto payments, gas, etc…
- How am I going to put food on the table? The last thing you want is to see your kids going hungry.
If I have my emergency fund, then one of my biggest worries is taken care of. If I have food storage, then the other of my biggest worries is taken care of. I don’t live in a bomb shelter and I don’t have tons of wheat under my bed. I advise you to build two types of food storage, short term and long term. Short term is the foods that you eat on a daily basis; jams, peanut butter, crackers, etc… Long term is the essentials you will need; wheat, rice, flour, noodles, etc… Just having these items is not good enough. You need to know how to use them every day. You might say do I have to eat food storage. It tastes horrible. You would change your mind if you had the cinnamon rolls my wife makes every Sunday night from our food storage. The point is to start building your food storage.
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