Food Storage a Commandment?

[Anonymous]

I was living in New England back in 2008 when there was a huge ice storm that knocked out power for a week. The roads were all covered in ice so we couldn’t go anywhere for a few days. We ended up having to use some of our food storage that we cooked on a gas camping stove. I don’t think most people should be preparing for end-of-world scenarios (depending on where you live), but it’s definitely a good idea to have enough to get through a short-term disaster.

Now that we live in a desert area we have water storage in a couple of 50-gallon barrels. So we could last a few days if something were to temporarily interrupt the water supply.

As far as being a commandment, I would say the commandment is to be wise and care for yourself and your family. How you choose to do that is up to you

[Anonymous]

Arrakeen wrote:

. I don’t think most people should be preparing for end-of-world scenarios (depending on where you live),

I dunno. This year has demonstrated that we do not have food security, let alone economic safety nets for many things. These are very severe times, but I guess that next year is going to be bad as well. I don’t know whether it will be as bad as this year, but it is going to be worse than 2019, and no one’s discussing the economic issue yet.

[Anonymous]

Last night I was watching the news and their was a segment about the trucking industry and how much they were hurt by the pandemic and that at least some parts of it are still struggling to recover. They interviewed the CEO of a company that specializes in refrigerated/frozen goods who shared that during height of the first part of the outbreak they significantly reduced their workforce because there simply wasn’t anything for them to haul because restaurants weren’t buying stuff. That reminded me of hearing local news reports about the same things and how local farmers were having trouble selling their stuff because restaurants and places like schools were closed. But what happened as a result of that, which I had forgotten because we didn’t take part because we didn’t need to, was massive food give aways, particularly dairy products (there are many dairy farms and plants here). A couple times per week there were places set up to give free milk to anyone regardless of need, all you had to do was show up. By about May, schools were also giving away tons of food partly because they still felt obligated to provide lunch for kids under the federal program and partly because they had stuff that just needed to go from their freezers. Again, you didn’t have to even have kids, you just had to go to the school during the pick up times. Our local district did it twice per week, but the small cities within driving distance (30-40 miles) did it daily. Again, we didn’t participate because we were able to buy whatever we needed* but we know lots of people who did participate.

*Full disclosure, I have been somewhat reticent to comment on some posts where people have suffered because of unemployment and other hardships during the pandemic. I know people and work with people who had to stay home because their kids were home and there was no childcare and that sometimes meant taking a leave of absence without pay or leaving their jobs. I don’t consider it a blessing although most people might, but from the employment standpoint I was unfazed by the pandemic, was allowed to work from home for an extended period even though there was actually nothing I could do from home, and I even got my annual raise. I have felt that I don’t want to feel “better” than someone else or more privileged, or more blessed that those who were/are suffering. And even though we were well able to provide for our needs and more (and we think we were generous) we don’t know anyone in our area who lacked for want of food or basic needs.

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