(pt.2) Family Food Security

The traditional practice of groups such as the Mormons, who practice 
food storage as a religious and cultural discipline, is to store basic 
foods such as whole grains, beans, and dried milk. Such food products 
are widely available, and can be easily stored for long periods of time. 
For most people, however, storing these products will require dietary 
changes. They will need to increase the amount of grains, beans, and 
vegetables in their diets, and decrease the amounts of meat. If you 
decide to change your diet, start introducing whole foods cooking 
gradually to allow your family time to learn to enjoy the new foods. 

Cooking from whole foods is what your grandmother used to do, and who 
can forget the tremendous holiday meals at Grandma's? With practice, 
whole foods cooking can be as convenient as anything frozen in a 
cardboard box, especially since you don't have to make a special trip to 
the store to get it. 

If the store isn't busy, for me to get in my car, go to the store, make 
my selection, stand in line, buy the frozen dinner, go back home -- 
figure that time at your hourly wage, and see how expensive that frozen 
dinner really is. If you've stocked your pantry properly, you can get by 
with as few as two trips to the store each month, and how much time 
would that save you, remembering how often these days that "time is 
money"? Not to mention, that time in the store is not quality time 
you're spending with your family. Maybe you are the one American family 
without a time crunch, and if so, congratulations, but the rest of us 
could use some extra hours every month, and stocking your pantry with a 
couple of months of basic food supplies is one way to do that. 

As an added bonus, you save money. When something is on sale, you can 
buy a lot of it without busting your grocery budget. Going to the 
grocery store is often like roulette, meat may be cheap, but canned 
goods have gone sky high. There's a sale on sugar, but look at the price 
of milk. You don't have to be hostage to the pricing strategy of your 
local grocer. Even if you are poor, you can insulate yourself from the 
vagaries of that marketplace by always being in a position to serve 
dinner, even if you don't go to the store for a couple of weeks. 

If canned goods are high and meat is low, you can buy meat, and get your 
canned goods next week when they have gone down in price but meat has 
gone up. You already have the meat, so you don't have to buy it when it 
is expensive. Effectively, this is a decision to keep some of your 
family's savings in the form of durable goods -- which is to say, 
groceries in the cupboard -- and this investment actually earns you 
interest and dividends in the form of better deals on the groceries you 
buy. You are going to spend money anyway, might as well get maximum 
value for your money -- in terms of saving you time and money. For most 
people, spending less money on groceries and having more time with their 
families would add up to "a better quality of life, and more family se
curity". 

So you can see why the corporate grocery industry has a vested interest 
in discouraging this practical and frugal household management practice. 
Irrespective of Y2k, it is a good idea for the consumer, but grocers 
don't like it because they're making money with their volatile price 
swings and high profits. 

The basic whole foods diet is detailed in the USDA Food Pyramid chart, 
which shows the number of recommended daily servings of each of the 
major food groups. Switching to a whole foods diet certainly doesn't 
mean giving up your appreciation of fine foods. Including these items in 
your diet has very real and health and quality of life benefits. So even 
if hard times come, you can enjoy arroz con pollo, pizza, chocolate 
cake, polenta, red beans and rice, fresh tortillas and homemade salsa, 
or any of the thousands of other tasty and nutritious meals that can be 
made from stored grains, beans, and vegetables. If there are no hard 
times, you can still enjoy the good nutritious food, and save time. 

The advice often mentioned by the United States government is 2 or 3 
days worth of food, but this recommendation is an unwise holdover from 
contingency plans for localized disasters, and also a reflection on how 
far we have departed from traditional frugality. Generally, the Red 
Cross and FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) figure that in most 
disasters, within 3 days they will be set up throughout the affected 
area, ready, willing, and able to distribute food or other supplies as 
needed. Thus, their concept is something to tide you over until the 
cavalry arrives. 

However, Y2K is not a normal emergency. It happens everywhere at once -- 
but the Red Cross and FEMA can't be "everywhere at once". Neither can 
anybody else. 

In the context of disaster preparations -- and perhaps as a start to a 
better and more frugal household management practice -- buy more food 
than you think you will need, and for a longer period than two weeks. 
Food is a consumable item, everything you buy is something that you can 
eat in good times or bad times. If Y2K turns out to be a false alarm 
rather than a crisis, you've saved yourself time and money in the year 
2000, because you have already bought most of the groceries you'll need 
for the first few months of the year. You can use that time and money 
for something else, like taking the family on a vacation. Alternatively, 
you can donate the excess groceries to a food pantry that helps the 
poor, and write it off as a tax deduction. Any way you look at it, money 
that you spend on food now is money in the bank. 

Start with your local sources. This may include various grocery stores, 
large discount/membership stores, farmers markets, feed stores, there 
are many possible options. 

An excellent idea is to develop a direct buying relationship with one or 
more farmers. This will be especially useful if you preserve some of 
your food yourself (drying, smoking, or canning), or if the farmer or 
cooperative does some processing. These skills help you ensure a high 
quality product. Make such contacts at farmers markets, or through your 
county extension agent or food circle. If international and national 
food distribution systems break down, having a relationship with a 
farmer in your area could be very important. Small farmers and 
cooperatives are good sources for items such as salt cured country hams 
that keep without refrigeration. 

Support the opening of a "community canning kitchen" in your area, by a 
cooperative of producers, or by a non-profit group such as a church or 
civic club. This would provide opportunities both to help families 
preserve their own produce, and also to give small market gardeners or 
microenterprises opportunities to process foods in a health department 
approved process. 

Since cooking and eating is crucial to your survival, don't be dependent 
upon only one form of energy, such as gas or electricity, for food 
preparation. Have one or more of these alternatives on hand for 
emergencies, or use some of them (as appropriate) for saving money on 
energy costs right now. 
