The Well-Stocked Pantry

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Garden & Yard

A little extra preparation will protect your family during emergency stuations.

By Gail Damerow.

A well-stocked pantry is something I wouldn't want to be without. The customary quick trip to "pick up a few things" becomes impractical when the nearest full-service grocery store requires a 72-mile round-trip over unpaved and winding roads and adds $5.30 in gas money to the cost of groceries. But even if we lived right next to Foodland, last summer's many hurricanes and last winter's Blizzard of the Century provided powerful reminders of just how fragile our food supply can be.

A properly designed and stocked pantry is not as big an undertaking as it might seem. If you do some gardening and put up any of your produce by canning or drying, you already have a good start. Although the price may seem somewhat costly at a little over $900, you can cut costs up to one-third by either fitting an existing closet with shelving or by building a pantry into a corner of your basement (you'll have to build only two walls instead of four). Note: Building your pantry into a corner without insulation should be done only with basements that are submerged in soil; the soil will insulate your pantry, keeping stored food cool. Building a pantry in an above-ground basement requires extra insulation, adding to the cost.

Last, remember that this is one project you don't want to skimp on. After all, a solid, well-stocked pantry is insurance that your family will have food and drink throughout any emergency.

Building the Pantry

The size of your pantry will depend pretty much on your reasons for building it. When we took stock of our own reasons, we decided that we wanted a place to store our annual supply of home-canned vegetables and fruit, and we wanted to be able to save money by buying food in bulk. Our survival instincts also told us we would be wise to have sufficient supplies on hand to feed the two of us for six months in an emergency (such as an illness or injury that keeps us from going out or a natural disaster that closes the highway interstate so stores don't get restocked).

We haven't yet experienced an emergency lasting six days, let alone six months, but that hasn't stopped us from digging into our supplies on occasion. We generally shop every six to eight weeks, but we sometimes skip a trip in winter when roads are icy or in summer when farm chores and marathon canning sessions don't give us time for a serious shopping trip.