Preparedness is a subject that I love to talk about. It’s something that the leaders of my Church have been asking it’s members to do for many, many years. I thought today I would share with you some of the things our family does to be prepared always. We are not perfect at it, and how we prepare is based on our families needs, so it may look a little bit different than other people’s preparedness. But regardless, there are principles of preparedness that are universal, it’s just the specifics that need to be individualized.

There are many different areas that need to be thought of as far as being prepared, so today I am going to share the food part of our preparation. The first thing my husband and I did when we first got married was to start on a long term food storage. This doesn’t happen over night, although part of ours did. But for the most part, this is something that has taken years to acquire and that needs to be constantly maintained.

Long term storage begins with things that store long term. Things that store for a longer period of time are items that are in their most basic forms. One of the things we store the most of is wheat, in the berry (or seed) form. This way it lasts for about 50 – 75 years if stored properly, in a cool location. We also store dried beans, like pinto, black, navy, etc. These don’t last as long, probably 20 years or so if properly stored, but that’s quite a while.

We also store rice, some pastas, sugar, white flour, salt and leavening in a few varieties (yeast, baking soda and baking powder). Although these won’t last as long as the wheat, they will last quite a long time if stored properly (yeast in the freezer, others in a cool dark storeroom). This takes care of most of the basics a person would need for survival for an extended period of time, because you can make so many things with just these items. But, while you can live alright on these items, your existence long-term would be pretty mundane at best.

This is where shorter term storage comes in, things that need to be used more regularly, but that do still store for a while. This is the kind of stuff that will last a year, maybe two if stored correctly. This is the items that would make the mundane a lot more palatable. These types of items are canned fruits and vegetables, canned meats, things like ketchup and other condiments, and fresh local items that are processed for longer term storage like jams and jellies, applesauce’s and chutney’s, pickles, salsas, and other garden type stuff that gets preserved every year.

Lastly, you have the short term things you eat and buy all the time. These obviously need to be bought and consumed regularly, like milk and eggs, fresh produce and fresh meat, things like that.

All of these items, from the really long term, to the really short term items need to not only be rotated once in a while, but especially the long term stuff, you need to know how to use it. I mentioned at the beginning, these are things my family stores, and that others may choose different things. But I think it’s important overall to have the long term, medium length, and short term food supplies, all at our homes so that it’s accessible to us in case of an emergency.

Lastly, having a clear direction for evacuation is super important. We have had to evacuate our home during a forest fire. We didn’t have our 72 hour kits simply because I hadn’t updated the ones we’d made years earlier. The kids clothes were years too small, and the food had been picked through and sent on camping trips. But, in hindsight of that evacuation, I would opt for a 2 week kit for each person and make sure things like a tent and sleeping bags were super easily accessible so they could just be grabbed quick when leaving. We were fortunate to have a friends house to stay at outside the fire line, but if we’d have had to set up shop on our own, it would definitely not have been as comfortable.

Being prepared relieves a lot of extra mental stress when things go bad quickly. And, just as the yellow quote above says, when you are prepared, that opens you up for opportunity to reach out and help others. I have a number of holes in my preparation, but I am constantly looking at ways to improve. I hope you take the time to take stock of what you have, and if you don’t feel prepared, take some steps toward being a little more prepared a little bit at a time. One extra can of food purchased regularly over an extended period of time leads to a lot of peace of mind.