By Greg Shuey

Disasters - either natural or man-made - and the unstable economy should make the majority of American families go back to the traditional ways of our grandparents. When we face these calamities, there are cases where emergency providers or assistance could take a few days, around 72 hours, before they could get to where you are. In most cases, you are on your own for the time being.

Most of us, Americans, take food storage for granted because we are more concerned with other things we deem more important. As reflected by recent studies, an average American family has food supply for less than a week on hand. Same with mini-groceries, supermarkets, and warehouses that do not have enough food supply.

Being prepared with food storage is a major disaster awareness and preparation that every people neglect and pay less attention. Based on personal experience, being prepared is really essential to survive. I have actually survived the first three days after a disaster and it paid off. A sure advice is to store food enough for your family to last a month. Normal supply of food can deplete fast during the time of extreme widespread winter, a disaster caused by terrorism, or a huge catastrophe.

Due to the fact that our economy is unstable, the next day or the other some of us do not have our jobs anymore. It should then become an imperative that every American citizen have a food storage plan to secure ourselves from disasters, loss of power, unemployment, or food loss due to traffic in food transportation.

The following are basic things you could do to start your food storage survival program.

1. Store large amounts of your basic food necessities, such as grains, powdered milk, flour, sugar, salt, garden seeds, and other produce that you could store like potatoes, cabbage, onions, beets, and the like.

2. Food with a limited shelf life must be consumed first. But make sure you will replace them with food that comes with longer expiry periods or if not, with fresher or newer ones.

3. Given that you have just a little budget, you can purchase food for storage little by little until you get all the items you need in your storage area.

4. Shop at wholesale stores or warehouses to save your money when you buy large amounts of supplies. They do price their items lower than retail stores.

5. Keep food from rodents and insects by putting them in tin containers, or even in air-tight plastic containers or boxes.

It is one good practice understanding the value of preparation. If you do not want your family to be at risk of starvation during the time of crisis, then you yourself should take some action as well, and not just wait for the rescue team to save the day.

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