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

The Lord's counsel to become self reliant has not changed. It is the same today as when President Brigham Young said, “If you are without bread, how much wisdom can you boast, and of what real utility are your talents, if you cannot procure for yourselves and save against a day of scarcity those substances designed to sustain your natural lives?” ( Journal of Discourses, 8:68).

What has changed, are the methods and means by which we can now achieve the prophetic maxim to be self reliant – and yet, there are weaknesses in our expedient solutions to food storage when poorly planned and carried out. For example, do you know someone, maybe yourself, who has thrown away hundreds of dollars worth of food storage that spoiled? Some of us may have been in the position of stocking grains and beans, only to lose our jobs and come to the realization that our food storage was not nutritionally balanced and was making the family sick.

We have seen LDS church membership grow to include more members living outside the United States than within. It is no secret that in some parts of the world, prudent people are not able to store large quantities of food because their governments prohibit such storage, and call it hoarding. Many cannot afford to store food, as they are financially very poor. Yet, many of these poor are spiritually rich.

I was recently told by a sister who had just completed a mission in South America of the sisters she had met. These sisters take a handful of rice and place it in a jar each time they prepare a meal. When the jar is full they begin a new jar. This is how they are accumulating their food storage. They understand the importance of following the counsel of prophets.

As natural disasters have increased it has become more obvious that governments, relief agencies and even the church cannot meet all the needs of those affected.

The World Health Organization, the United States Center for Disease Control and government agencies throughout the world have advised that when a pandemic arrives the best way to keep our families safe is to self quarantine for a period of two to three months.

Focus for Latter-day Saints

To meet today's challenges, the focus for today's Latter-day Saint families has evolved and been further refined, according to our circumstances. The Church has published the pamphlet All Is Safely Gathered In: Family Home Storage, outlining new guidelines for home preparedness. They are as follows:

Presiding Bishop H. David Burton says of the guidelines, “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.”

As we are told not just to read, but to study the scriptures, let us briefly study this pamphlet.

Gradually Build

Note that it says “ gradually build” . We do not need to run to the store and purchase cases of food on our credit cards. That is foolish. We should, however, build a supply by consistently, every week, adding to our storage. We are counseled to store “ food that is a part of your normal, daily diet”. You don't need to store wheat if you have wheat allergies. You don't need to store anything your family does not like to eat. We should, however, be storing the foods and spices which enable us to create healthy, nutritional foods for our families every day. These foods will never be thrown away because we will be constantly using them, thus rotating them. Note that we are counseled to store enough “ until it is sufficient for three months”. Our goal is a three month supply.

But what if an emergency arises before we have a three month supply? Elder Ballard has provided counsel:

"Often in my ministry have I heard the sad tale of those who are struggling to become self-reliant but in fact are becoming more dependent upon others because of their inability to think straight and apply common sense in the decisions they make. Much of life's misery centers in the lack of using common sense. As an example, consider the pharmacist who was compounding a prescription that called for as much strychnine as you could put on the face of a dime. He didn't have a dime, so he used two nickels. Helping people to think straight and use common sense will, in my judgment, always be a very important step in helping them to reach economic self-reliance. It is part of teaching our children and others to walk in the ways of truth and soberness and to love and serve one another (see Mosiah 4:15 ). Part of thinking straight is listening—being able to listen to the promptings of the Spirit. ( M. Russell Ballard, “Becoming Self-Reliant—Spiritually and Physically,” Ensign , Mar 2009).

Thinking straight and using common sense. Isn't it thinking straight and using common sense to work toward a one week supply of all the foods you have determined to store, and then a one month supply of all those foods, and so on? Common sense tells us it is better to have a complete one week supply than a three month supply of only peanut butter and jelly, and nothing to eat it on.

Store drinking water . We cannot survive for more than a few days without water and neither can our pets. Water storage is for the most part, free. Do not waste precious financial resources buying lots of water. If you cannot afford 50 gallon drums, use what you have. For ideas on how to solve your water storage challenges, review the Meridian article: Water Storage-What if the Tap Goes Dry?

Note that nowhere in the pamphlet All Is Safely Gathered In does it say that food comes first, then water and then a financial reserve. Remember Elder Ballard's counsel and use common sense. Think of water as part of the foods you eat and maybe that will help. After all, you can't prepare those foods if you have no water.

Establish a financial reserve by setting aside a little money each week.

“Cash is not food, it is not clothing, it is not coal, it is not shelter; and [when] we have got to the place where no matter how much cash we have, we cannot secure those things in the quantities which we may need. … All that you can be certain you will have is that which you produce.” (Conference Report, Apr. 1937, p. 26.).

Do not put off your food storage to build a financial reserve. Follow the counsel, and put aside a small amount each week. If you are just beginning to stock your pantry, this may only be your pocket change each week. Just remember to do a little day-by-day. Once you have reached your three month supply, you will naturally increase in your ability to save.

Once families have achieved the first three objectives ... Did you get that? Once you have achieved a three month supply - of food and water storage and a reasonable financial reserve – then it is time to reach for a complete year's supply of food. This does not mean you can't take advantage of a great sale and get a six month supply of rice or wheat before your three month supply is complete. It does mean to concentrate your limited funds on the first three objectives first. First things first.

Remember, only you really understand what your family's needs are. If you need help identifying those needs (your ideal storage inventory), then please take advantage of previous food storage articles here at Meridian or join the discussion on my blog . It is not difficult to understand, but if you are unsure, get some help from those who have been there before. If you are dealing with stumbling blocks let's turn them into stepping stones.

You may have noticed that All Is Safely Gathered In does not discuss coal (fuel) and shelter as does the quote from the April 1937 Conference report. Consider the scriptures: " For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward. Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness; For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward. But he that doeth not anything until he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned. (Doctrine and Covenants 58:26-29).

Again, let's use our common sense. Should we be storing fuel? Of course, how will you prepare food without fuel? How will you keep your family warm during a power outage?

What about shelter? Just think of the financial reserve we could have if our home mortgage was paid off. But alas, I digress. A house or apartment is at least a shelter, and in a time of adversity, we could shelter ourselves with less, just as the pioneers did when leaving their homes behind and turning their faces West to the Great Plains . Our first priorities are a three month supply of food, water and a reasonable financial reserve.

Last week I attended Stake Conference, and during the Saturday night session our Stake President shared a quote from Joseph Smith. As I pondered the quotation and the lesson therein, I knew I had to share it with you.

We have all known for a long time the importance of food storage. Many have known without ever having heard the counsel of a prophet. My father and mother, always had food storage in our Plainfield , New Jersey home even though we were not fortunate enough to have the counsel of latter-day prophets as part of our lives. They learned from their families' experiences in the Depression, from the scarcity of goods during WWII, and from occasional times of unemployment and disability that there was no substitute for a well-stocked pantry when the bank account was empty.

I was so sad as I heard our Stake President cite the frustrations of Joseph Smith, as recorded in Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith chapter 45:

“It is my meditation all the day, and more than my meat and drink, to know how I shall make the Saints of God comprehend the visions that roll like an overflowing surge before my mind. Oh! how I would delight to bring before you things which you never thought of!"¹

“There has been a great difficulty in getting anything into the heads of this generation. It has been like splitting hemlock knots with a corn-dodger [a piece of corn bread] for a wedge, and a pumpkin for a beetle [a wooden mallet]. Even the Saints are slow to understand."

“I have tried for a number of years to get the minds of the Saints prepared to receive the things of God; but we frequently see some of them, after suffering all they have for the work of God, will fly to pieces like glass as soon as anything comes that is contrary to their traditions: they cannot stand the fire at all. How many will be able to abide a celestial law, and go through and receive their exaltation, I am unable to say, as many are called, but few are chosen (D&C 121:40).”²

Joseph Smith asked:

“When did I ever teach anything wrong from this stand? When was I ever confounded?” ³

We can ask the same question - when did President Brigham Young, or President Thomas Monson, or any prophet in between teach anything wrong from the stand? All modern day prophets have counseled us to become self reliant and capable of caring for all our own needs. Now is the time not only to listen, but to act. Not only to read, but to study. Not only to plan, but to do it. The writing has been on the wall for quite some time now.

¹ History of the Church, 5:362; spelling and punctuation modernized; paragraph divisions altered; from a discourse given by Joseph Smith on Apr. 16, 1843, in Nauvoo , Illinois ; reported by Wilford Woodruff and Willard Richards.

² History of the Church, 6:184–85; from a discourse given by Joseph Smith on Jan. 21, 1844, in Nauvoo, Illinois; reported by Wilford Woodruff.

³ History of the Church, 6:366; from a discourse given by Joseph Smith on May 12, 1844, in Nauvoo, Illinois; reported by Thomas Bullock.

If you have food storage questions you would like answered in a future Meridian article email Carolyn: carolyn@TotallyReady.com