3 Month Food Supply
Why build a 3-month food supply? Food insecurity and famine are increasing around the world. The national and world economies, along with our food supply is becoming increasingly fragile. There is great wisdom in stocking up on food while it is widely available and relatively inexpensive. A pantry full of food provides a sense of security and peace. Natural disasters are increasing exponentially. It’s not a matter of if one will strike near you, but when and what form the disaster will be. Being prepared for the “unexpected” provides great peace and mitigates some of the threats.
Design a plan for building a 3-Month Food Supply
Consider the foods you and your family like to eat. Your 3-month food supply should include meals that your family will want to eat. Develop a 2-week menu of meals that your family members will eat. McDonald’s is not an option so leave that, and all other fast-food favorites, off the menu. Select menus based around shelf-stable ingredients. It is okay to include some frozen foods, but wisdom would dictate that most ingredients come from shelf-stable, easy-to-store items. Still need help with dinner ideas? Consider dinner themes. For example, Pasta, American, Mexican, Italian, etc. Think of meals you make or could make in these categories and go from there. Once you have 14 dinner ideas multiply by 7 to have your 3-month plan for dinners.
Next make a similar plan for both Breakfast and Lunch. You could just plan for 7 meals and repeat them for the 14 weeks. This should be enough variety as many of us have children that would be happy to eat their favorite sandwich every day of the week if permitted.
Create a plan for purchasing the necessary items for your 3-month food menu. Budget some money each month for building your 3-month pantry.
Once you have a plan for your 3-month food supply, prepare a place to store your food and start stocking up a little each week. Make this a priority and work toward consistent progress until you achieve your goal. Learn to rotate this food into your daily cooking and constantly replenish the stocks of these food items as they go on sale again.
You might want to include non-food items in this 3-month supply as we plan for and get a 3-month supply of necessities such as diapers, medication, toilet paper, toiletries etc. Accomplishing all this overnight is not needful. However, developing a plan you can follow and execute in a time of need is the key to confidence and peace of mind in this area of preparedness
