The Pantry: Food

The pantry locations have been chosen and shelves built; now it is time to start stocking it with food.  First you need to think about a few things to help you with your choices:  How long do I want this food to last?  How many people do I need to feed?  What do they eat?

In my county our Emergency Management Dept. suggests that we keep a supply of food that will last several days.  This is in case of a hurricane, but after seeing the slow response to hurricane Katrina I think that several months supply is more prudent.  But what if dear husband were laid off or one of us became seriously ill and our money supply dried up?  In this case, a year of food in storage sounds much more reassuring to me.

Now you need to decide how many people you will be feeding.  What are their ages?  Will it just be immediate family or will some long lost relatives come knocking on your door?  How about the elderly neighbor across the street?  Look at this hard and fast.  Are you willing to turn people away?

The best way for me to figure out my family's year long food storage needs is to use a food calculator.  This takes away the guess work, but you may need to tweak the list to meet your individual needs.  If your family never eats rice, but loves noodles, make a substitution.  Does an elderly relative drink a nutritional supplement drink every day?  Add it.  You get the picture.

If you are one of those people that wants to spend thousands of dollars buying a years worth of dehydrated foods in #10 cans, then go for it.  Most of us will be building our pantry supplies slowly, but surely, buying extra during sales and canning what we can grow and hunt.  With steady, economical purchasing you will have a pantry grandma would have been proud of.

God bless,
Pam