Breakfast from our food storage

My family has basically two levels of food storage--what we normally eat and have a lot of in our kitchen and extended pantry, and what we normally eat and have EVEN MORE of in what I've heard referred to as our deep larder. And it just makes sense that for your food storage, you should stock up large quantities of what you normally eat anyway, because why would you stock up on stuff you don't eat??

So with that in mind, having plenty of food on hand has paid off this past week while I've still been jobless (but praise the Lord, I start a new job Tuesday!), because even though we've had very little cash to spare the past couple weeks, we haven't had to set foot in a grocery store because we have plenty of food to draw from.

Some people might think "food storage" sounds boring and not especially tasty, but if you're storing what you normally eat anyway, why shouldn't it be? So I thought I'd share a photo of breakfast this morning--oatmeal with dehydrated banana chips (I buy my banana chips at BulkFoods.com). Add a touch of honey, and talk about a yummy breakfast!

There's plenty of room for food storage in unusual places

When I was a kid, my parents bought a trundle bed, with one mattress on top and a second mattress in a sort of drawer that pulled out from underneath the other mattress. I mention this to help those of you who think you don't have a lot of space for food storage see that you really DO have more space for food--and you SHOULD make space for food.

It sounds really weird to some people to suggest that, if you have limited shelf and/or closet space, then you should consider storing food items under your bed or other such places. For those of you not familiar with trundle beds, click on the link above for a photo of one of those beds. I'm not suggesting you buy a trundle bed; I'm suggesting you embrace the possibilities of such a storage concept. Many of us probably already have boxes and other items stored under our bed anyway, but as I've noted in other posts, most things taking up space in our living quarters are not as important as food, water and so on when it comes to our survival.

So along the same design concept as a trundle bed, let's imagine a wide and somewhat flat storage container that's big enough to hold canned goods and small enough to fit under your bed. I'm sitting here right now with a box that's about 11 inches wide by 17 inches long, and I've got 22 cans of various vegetables snugly fit into this box. Multiply that by the number of such boxes that I could fit under my bed (approximately 10) and you see the huge potential this sort of thing has for those of you with limited space. Now take a look at all the other misused space (space being taken up by stuff you never use or don't really need) and you've probably got room for several hundred cans of food in your home even though you "don't have much space."

I'd suggest organizing each box of canned goods according to the expiration dates stamped on the cans and rotate them first-in, first-out according to the dates (although studies show that the nutritional value of most canned goods goes well beyond the dates on the cans--the dates are just a regulatory requirement by the FDA (in the U.S.) and not a statement of whether food is safe to eat after said dates. Do your own research, but you will likely find similar information.

Keeping an inventory list of what you have stored up and stashed away can also be helpful--you can more easily keep track of what you have and what the expiration dates are. And just to keep prying eyes from seeing what you have hidden in your secret pantry, don't put that list on your computer. You never know when someone might be trying to tap into your personal information online. ;)

Get the word out about this site to your pastor and others

I don't want this blog to become just a niche forum for a very narrow segment of the online population, because quite frankly I think that the message about Christians and preparation for hard times should be spreading rapidly--and those of you who visit this blog are in a great position to help spread the word. I'm not looking for visitors to this blog just for the sake of having visitors; I'm wanting to see Christians across the country and across the world follow the example of Joseph in the book of Genesis, preparing for hard times and by doing so putting themselves in a position to minister to countless others. It's not an exact parallel, but I often think of how the Underground Railroad led captives to freedom and how by stocking up on food and other necessities in preparation for hard times, we will be in a position to feed others physically and spiritually, and our provisions will open the door for us to share with others what Christ has done and is doing in our lives. Feeding hungry, thirsty strangers gets their attention, and as we see in the Gospels so many instances in which Jesus fed people spiritually while also feeding them physically, why should we not be seeking to do the same thing?

But this should be a collective, community effort. Christians all over the country and all over the world should be stocking up so they can minister to others. This isn't just something that should be limited to those of us with Internet access. So I'd like to challenge you to tell your pastor and people in your church and your community about this blog. Tell them that they can go directly to StockingUp.net, or you can even send them a link to this site by using the buttons at the bottom of each of these posts--the envelope button at the bottom will send an e-mail message to someone, and you can also post links to this site on Twitter and Blogger using the buttons below. For those of you whose pastors don't have Internet access, print out the articles on this blog and give it to them. I want to see hungry, thirsty strangers fed physically and spiritually and for them to see and hear from us that what they are seeing in action is the love of Jesus. Please tell your pastors about this site and ask them to likewise spread the message of this site to others. It's a great ministry opportunity for each and every one of us who follow Christ.

How just-in-time inventory could leave your pantry empty

For those of you looking for a good excuse not to stock up now, here's a disturbing link that shows how razor-thin most stores' inventory is in good times...and you probably don't want to imagine worst-case scenarios, but you should. Most of us probably wouldn't travel to five different Walmarts just to prove the point that this blogger makes about how little inventory (food or otherwise) is on store shelves at any given moment, but his point is crystal-clear: Stock up now while you can, for the sake of yourself and your family:

Article: Five Walmarts, one can of carrots and de facto food-price inflation

Here's a key paragraph from the link above:

The thing about “just-in-time” inventory is that it’s just-in-time for the store--not for the customer. You have absolutely no guarantee that you’ll be able to get what you want if you don’t get it now, and even if you want to wait for something, how long will it be before an item is back on the shelves? At a couple of the Walmarts, I asked the manager if they knew how long it might be before they got more carrots in stock--but they said they had no way to tell. Four stores had no Great Value canned carrots at all. I got the last can at another store. Another store had 63 cans, but they were out of reach until the next morning--and who knows how many other people might be waiting for the store to open and rush to get that very product because every other store was out of it? It doesn’t take a major leap of logic to realize that this will happen when items are in short supply--and how impolite, unruly or even violent will people get when they clamor to get the last item out of your hands because you have it and they want it?

What's your excuse for not stocking up right now?