family home storage: a new message

When the new program for Home Storage was introduced in 2007, I was pleased to have some new specific direction. However, it was an adjustment to change some of my thinking about food storage. It took me a while to change gears and update and adjust my storage habits. I really enjoyed this new article from my March Ensign. It addresses the changes and need to change our thinking specifically. And notice that once again, it specifies that we should achieve the first three steps before moving onto the fourth. Here is a snippet:


Family Home Storage: A New Message

Check the expiration date on your ideas about home storage. You may need to throw some of them out.

A New Approach
. . . In the spirit of President Hinckley's ("We can begin ever so modestly. We can begin with a one week's food supply and gradually build it to a month, and then to three months." General Conference, October 2002) remarks, Church leaders decided to closely reexamine their approach to self reliance, looking for ways to reinforce the concepts of home storage and financial preparedness. As a result, the Church published the pamphlet All Is Safely Gathered In: Family Home Storage, outlining new guidelines for home preparedness that give Church members a simplified, four-step approach to building their home storage.

They are as follows:
1. Gradually build a small supply of food that is part of your normal, daily diet until it is sufficient for three months.
2. Store drinking water.
3. Establish a financial reserve by setting aside a little money each week, and gradually increase it to a reasonable amount.
4. Once families have achieved the first three objectives, they are counseled to expand their efforts, as circumstances allow, into a supply of long-term basic foods such as grains, legumes, and other staples.

Of the new guidelines, Presiding Bishop H. David Burton says, "Our objective was to establish a simple, inexpensive, and achievable program that would help people become self-reliant. We are confident that by introducing these few, simple steps we can, over time, have more success." . . .

The Time to Begin Is Now
"Perhaps in the past accumulating a year's supply of food may have been a little intimidating and even illegal in some places," says Dennis Lifferth, managing director of Church Welfare Services, "But this new approach asks us to do the best we can, even if all we can do is to set aside a can or two each week. If the prophet asks us to do something, we can find a way to fulfill the commandment and receive the blessings."'

"This new program is within everyone's grasp," explains Bishop Burton. "The first step is to begin. The second is to continue. It doesn't matter how fast we get there so much as that we begin and continue according to our abilities."