Every day when you turn on the television and watch the news you see calamity after calamity. Some storm hit here, another storm hit there. This hurricane spanned several countries with effects spanning one-third of the country. This crop failed because of drought. That crop failed because of floods. You literally don’t know what tomorrow will bring. There was a time when you turned on the television to watch the weather portion of the news and know that it was fairly accurate. Now-a-days the weatherman may be right or he may be not. You have a 50/50 chance.
Between droughts, floods, storms, animal diseases, oil spills, forest fires and plain maliciousness of mankind, our food and clean water supplies are quickly dwindling. You don’t need God to give you a dream or a vision like He did Pharaoh. You can see it with your own two eyes and hear it with your own two ears.
A prudent person foresees the danger ahead and takes precautions.” (Proverbs 27:12 NLT)
Our job is to have enough common sense to see the signs and be wise in preparing. It’s time to be like Joseph, whom God placed second in command over all Egypt. When Pharaoh called for Joseph to come before him Pharaoh questioned Joseph about being able to interpret dreams. Joseph first acknowledged that only God could give the interpretation. Then he gave Pharaoh the answer he was seeking. Next he told Pharaoh what he should do to prevent all those he loved, along with his kingdom, from dying.
What was this great advice? Tax the people with a 20% tax on all the crops of the land of Egypt. He told him to be discreet and wise about it because Pharaoh didn’t want a riot to break out or hording to take place.
Pharaoh and all his advisors thought this was a good idea so he placed Joseph over this enormous project. He placed his ring on Joseph’s finger and clothed him in fine linen with a gold chain around his neck. No one could lift a foot or raise a finger unless Joseph approved it. There was no one higher than Joseph except Pharaoh himself.
Joseph went from having his coat ripped from him, thrown into a hole, sold into slavery, falsely accused and thrown into prison, only to come out being second in command over all Egypt, have a new wife, and father two sons, whose names means, “causing to forget” (all the troubles he suffered at the hand of his family) and “fruit” because God made him fruitful in the land of his misfortune. This is what being faithful to God will do for you. He will raise you above your enemies, keep you from starvation, and restore to you 100-fold.
So how can you apply what Joseph did? You can tax yourself. You can put away 20% of the food you buy or buy an extra 20% of food just for long-term storage. As you saw Joseph had to store food for up to 14 years. If he used the first-in, first-out rule then storage was as least 7 years old. The point is that you need more food than just 3 days’ worth or even 3 months’ worth.
How to Gather Food to Store
How do you store that much food? There are several ways you can do this: (1) Can and dehydrate your own food, (2) buy freeze-dried and dehydrated foods from a reputable company, (3) buy box and canned goods with long expiration dates, and (4) store dried food like beans, oats, and rice in Mylar bags.
If you normally buy a bag of rice, buy two extra bags to put away. Always pick up several extra cans of food or spend a certain amount on food to store.
One of the best things I can suggest is using recipes and making up packages of meals. They are normally called “Meals in a Jar,” but instead of using a jar, you use a Mylar bag. For example, if you have a favorite bean soup recipe, gather enough ingredients to make ten meals. Then group all the ingredients together for one meal according to how you cook it. Place them into individual sandwich or snack bags, pushing out as much air as possible. Next place all of these bags in a Mylar bag, add an oxygen absorber, and seal. Or you can just dump all of your ingredients into a Mylar bag, add an oxygen absorber, and seal. In whichever case print out the directions and tape it onto the bag. You can write it out, but I found printing it to be a life saver.
If you have family members who don’t have the time, maybe you can work out a deal where you do it for them and you get what you need also. For example, if you can food, you can do this for them. For every two dozen of jars you can for them, they give you a dozen jars in equal size. They can purchase their own food and bring it over or give you the money to buy it for them. If you’re dehydrating food for them, then for every 2-4 pounds of food you dehydrate they buy you one pound of food to dehydrate for yourself. Another example is if you’re just packaging dried recipes then for every five packages you put together you get one or two bags for yourself. This way you can help them and they can help you. Also, this is a great way to increase your storehouse without a lot of extra income.
Here are a couple of videos to give you some ideas of meals in a jar or bag.
How to Make Meals In A Jar
365 Meals
Where Do I Store My Food?
If you don’t have a dedicated place to store them, here are a few simple storage space solutions. You can get creative and store them under your bed, behind furniture, in chests, in trunks, under the stairs, in the basement, in the attic (if it doesn’t get too hot), in the garage, and in a closet.
You can clean out some of your old stuff and have a garage sale. That money can go toward your food storage. Then you can use that space for your storage needs. Just make sure the area you use is not too hot, too cold, or damp. Here is an article with pictures to show where to place your food storage.
Is There a Famine Coming?
Am I saying there’s a severe famine is coming? No. I’m saying based on today’s headlines it’s possible. It could be worldwide, nationwide, or a personal famine. No matter what happens in the world it always helps to be prepared because anything can happen. For example, if you lost your job and had no more income coming in for the next few months than there is no way to feed yourself without someone else helping you. Or you could go into your pantry (or under your bed) and not worry about it. Therefore, it’s better to be prepared and not need it than to need it and not have it. Let’s be wise in what we see and hear.
Are you prepared for any disaster, whether man-made or natural? What are some ways you were able to store food? Share your wisdom with us and help us learn more about food storage.