LDS Church Preparedness Resources

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Being prepared is not an uncommon practice among many religions. Being prepared goes back to biblical times (think Joseph and the famine). As many of you may know, the LDS church has been advocating for its members to build a food storage for many years. They have provided their members with different resources and recommendations. One of their resources we have used is their long-term storage recommendations they made based on a study to create our Long Term Food Storage Calculator. DID YOU KNOW… They have recently put out A TON of great resources, not only for their members but for anyone who is looking into getting more prepared. Today we wanted to walk you through some of the resources you might find helpful, and remind you of some of the resources on our site to really give you a kick-start if you’ve been stalling or are new to preparedness.

Resources on our site

INDIVIDUALS: We have worked hard over the years to help our readers with their individual preparedness plans through our BabyStep Checklists. When you sign up, every two weeks you get a free checklist that gives you assignments To Learn, To Buy, and To Do. Over the course of a year you will have an eprep plan, water storage, short term and long term food storage all accomplished.

GROUP LESSON PLANS: We have also put together some group lesson plans for families, churches, or communities to use to teach classes on different preparedness principles such as how to use wheat, or why it’s necessary to build a food storage.

What the LDS Church is Teaching for Individuals

If you visit the Emergency Preparedness section of LDS.org you will see what the current recommendations are for an individual family to do to be more prepared. Here are the items they are recommending:

• Clothing and bedding
• Drinking water
• Financial reserves
• Important documents
• Longer-term supply of basic food items
• Medication and first aid supplies
• Three-month supply of food that is part of your normal diet
• Ways to communicate with family following a disaster
• Obtain First Aid, CPR, and/or AED Training

What the LDS Church is Teaching for Neighborhoods/Groups

The area we haven’t covered in depth is how to create a large scale community action plan. A lot of people do CERT training (Julie went through it last year) but it is quite an expensive, intense, and lengthy process. It also isn’t available in all areas. The LDS church gives outlines a 5-step program for how you can work within your own neighborhood to become better prepared as a whole and split up assignments. It may not be as formal as a CERT plan but it is still really helpful! It’s designed for their own area boundaries but it can easily be applied to any neighborhood designations that you come up with. The topics outlined are as follows:

• Introduction
• Step 1: Identify Likely Disasters
• Step 2: Gather Critical Information
• Step 3: Outline Assignments and Procedures
• Step 4: Identify Emergency Communication Methods
• Step 5: Encourage Individual Preparation

Click here to view the entire neighborhood planning page

LDS Food Storage Resources

Did you know that you can buy inexpensive food storage from Home Storage Centers around the world? (Click here to find out if there is one near you.) People used to go to these centers and buy food in bulk and can them themselves there. However, things have changed now and you can just walk in and buy many products already sealed in #10 cans. This is a great place to get your basic, staple, long-term storage products at the best prices. For those who don’t live near a Home Storage Center you can even order ONLINE now with very minimal shipping charges. It’s a great option for the items they do have, although the variety isn’t that awesome. Click here to check out the online store and see what you can get! You don’t have to be a member of the LDS church to be able to shop at either the Home Storage Centers or the online store.

If you want to see the inside of an LDS Home Storage Center check out the fun little trip our friend Al Fox Carraway took to a local home storage center just the other day. We think we might invite her over and teach her HOW TO USE THAT WHEAT!

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