The Mormon faith is interesting. Very interesting. John Smith, who I thought was the dude who loathed Pocahontas/but whatever, found these great gold plates hidden in the middle of no where's land, and decided to add a sequel to the greatest book of all, the Bible.
I have nothing against people who are Mormon. In fact, I practically grew up with a Mormon family when I was in elementary school. And, too, Mormons are Christians, yes, a separate branch of the great oak tree of Christianity, but still on the same tree - as they believe Jesus is God's son.
In fact, Mormons are probably more Christian than "born again" Christians are...
In my youth groups, my kids always tell me how they can always spot Mormons within the high school crowd. They are wearing modest clothing, and not drinking energy drinks, and aren't cussing or fonding their friends, and get to class on time. Shock and ahh! I just laugh and tell them that that behavior is really what THEY are suppose to be doing too!!!
I recently found the BYU channel on our DirectTV. Half of the time it shows programming promoting the Mormon faith, but the other half also includes us "regular" folk in the conversation.
Like for instance, The Food Nanny.
This is a delightful show where Liz Edmunds goes into people's homes and helps them figure out how to have successful dinners together as a family each night. In fact, she termed this, la vita vera - the good life!
She has this idea that families can make dinner simple to plan, prepare, and share by using her "nanny plan" which is a two week menu planner. Very clever idea I think. Get it for free at http://thefoodnanny.org/.
Anyway, through watching several of her shows, I got interested in how Mormons shop. Now, for some of you, you may think, well Amy, they shop like the rest of us. But, no, not really, because it is a part of the Mormon faith to shop differently, and to be prepared for emergencies, and in most cases, have a year's supply of food on hand at all times.
Yup - a whole freakin' year of food!
This not only is to be prepared for an extreme emergency situation, but also to be prepared for unplanned things like unemployment or sickness.
The idea is to have a year's worth of food, along with a three month supply of emergency food, plus the food that you would eat on a regular day.
That's a crap ton of food! (Well, only if processed, he he.)
The year's worth of food, to my understanding, is food that is mostly canned or in grain form, and can keep for a long time. But, instead of never touching it, like your 3-month emergency food supply, you eat it along with your regular food and restock as necessary. That way nothing gets expired, but you still have your year supply.
In fact, there are Mormon specific stores to help Mormons shop for their food supplies. Check this one out for fun, http://www.shelfreliance.com/. But, in my research of finding the cheapest emergency food out there to purchase, Mormon specific stores were on the higher end, so I encourage you to shop around.
Actually, if you want a really good deal on bulk food, you should start with ex-Mormons. I found this site of a couple who had left the church and its beliefs and was looking to unload - their load - http://www.exmormon.org/mormon/mormon324.htm. There are lots of sites like this on web.
According to the Child Protective Services of California, a family is in the clear if they produce another food for all the children in the house to eat for three days (coincidence from last post's 72 hour kits??). If CPS comes into your home and finds less than three days worth of food for your children, you could be in lots of trouble. But, I think you would make CPS's day if when they came into your home in search of food and found a year and three months supply, PLUS your regular stocked pantry.
What a go getter!
But, as for me, I think I will keep to just stocking up on items when they are on really good sales, and forget about trying to maintain a pantry to feed for a year.
Don't even get me started on where I would put all that food...
