Long Term Food Storage
There are many excellent reasons to build and maintain a supply of food in your home. If you're reading this, then you've taken the first and most important step of deciding that food storage is worth considering. No matter what your circumstances, it is possible to build at least a small supply of food and other essentials to keep your family from doing without if something unforseen happens.
Where to put Food Storage
Where you choose to store your supply of food and essentials depends in large part on your individual circumstances. The best choice would be someplace cool and dry where you have ample space, such as a cellar or unfinished part of your basement. If you don't have access to someplace that meets that description, you could try emptying out an extra closet or even raising your bed frame on cinder blocks and storing your food under the bed.
Getting Started Building Food Storage
Once you've chosen a spot to start stashing your food storage, it's time to get started acquiring it. You can start small. Don't go nuts and buy $500 worth of groceries. You can start by picking up a few extra items every time you go to the grocery store and putting them in your storage. Choose items that will last for at least a year, and more importantly, things your family will really eat. It's at this point that coupon shopping can really start coming in handy. Clip those Sunday paper coupons and check out a deal matching site for great sales that will allow you to stock up on food without spending any more on groceries than you normally would.
What to Store
However humbly you begin you should aim at getting a fairly permanant storage of some essentials that last practically forever in good storage conditions. These include whole grains, powdered milk, salt, sugar, beans, baking soda, flour (or whole wheat and a small mill), etc in addition to the stuff you use on a regular basis that stores well like canned goods, pasta, peanut butter, sauces, and preserves. These are some of the suggested foods and the amounts required per adult per year:
| Item- | Amount | |
| Wheat- | 240 pounds | |
| Corn- | 240 pounds | |
| Powdered Milk- | 75 pounds | |
| Iodized salt- | 5 pounds | |
| Soybeans- | 120 pounds | |
| Fats and Oil- | 20 pounds or about 3 gallons | |
| Vitamin C or Daily multivitamin- | 365 tablets | |