The Daily Mail has an article on the LDS Church's disaster preparations and Bishop's Storehouses (which are for charitable purposes, like a food bank). A little bit from the article:
Towering grain silos overlook the main highway in Salt Lake City at the Mormon church's Welfare Square. At grocery stores, there's a whole section with large plastic tubs with labels that read, "Deluxe survivor 700." Radio ads hawk long-term supplies of food with 25-year shelf lives.
And houses are equipped with special shelving for cans of beans, rice and wheat.
Storing away enough food and water in case of disaster, job loss or something worse is not just part of the fundamental teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it's an idea that is increasingly catching on nationwide.
... By the mid-1900s, church leaders worried about nuclear war were using more apocalyptic rhetoric in encouraging food storage. During the Cold War, church members were encouraged to have a two-year supply, Bowman said.
In the last two decades, the focus on food storage has shifted back to practicality.
‘A lot of times we are thinking in terms of food storage that we are preparing for this major calamity or major disaster or for Armageddon,’ said Rick Foster, manager of North America Humanitarian Services with the LDS church. ‘It's not about that.
‘It's about helping all of us individually to get through these bumps that occur in our lives,’ he said.
If members are prepared, they can help themselves and others in times of need, Foster said. ...
... Chris Rutter and his family of six found their food stash vital after he lost his job in 2009 when his company made major layoffs during the economic downturn. It took Rutter two years to find full-time work again.
During that rough patch, they relied on savings and leaned heavily on the stored food. Rutter's wife, Jodi, made homemade bread, soups and spaghetti sauces from her canned tomatoes, and made gallons of milk last longer by mixing them with powdered milk.
They still buy many of their supplies at their nearby storage center, including 50-pound bags of oats and large tins of chocolate milk powder, a family favorite. Jodi Rutter uses the oats, which have a shelf life of five years, to make her own granola, pancakes and cookies.
She also buys food in bulk at Costco, keeps an eye out for grocery store coupons and has a garden with tomatoes and zucchini and a peach tree.
‘We honestly never felt like we were going without,’ she said about the period when her husband was unemployed. ‘We always felt so blessed to have enough to feed our kids.’
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