Family Home Evening - Food Storage

Food Storage

Scripture or Quote:

The great blessing of being prepared gives us freedom from fear, as guaranteed to us by the Lord in the Doctrine and Covenants: “If ye are prepared ye shall not fear” (D&C 38:30). (L.Tom Perry, "If Ye Are Prepared Ye Shall Not Fear", Ensign, Nov 1995, 35).

Purpose:

The prophets have asked us to have a year’s supply of food storage for each member of our family. Food storage includes grains like wheat, flour, rice, and oats. It also can include fruits and vegetables that are canned in a jar to preserve them. Have you ever eaten canned foods before? Canned foods are great because fresh produce can be saved for a later time and be eaten.

Opening Song: Do as I’m Doing (pretend to put food on the shelf or pick from a garden) CSB 276

Lesson:

Diana Faught, “Katie’s Peaches,” Friend, Aug. 2003, 18

Six-year-old Katie loves peaches. But she lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, where it is too hot for peaches to grow well. Luckily she has a neighbor named Daun who knows a lot about growing fruits and vegetables. He and his wife, Alice, have a peach tree that grows big, beautiful, very tasty peaches.

One day Alice came over with a big bag full of peaches. “Would you like some peaches?” she asked. “This year we seem to have more than usual.”

Katie’s mom thanked her and took the peaches into the kitchen. She washed them and put them into the refrigerator.

Later that week, while Katie was at a friend’s house, Mom bottled all of the peaches in big glass jars for their food storage. When Katie got home, she cried, “What did you do to my peaches? Now I don’t have any to eat.”

“I’m sorry,” Mom said. “The next time Alice brings over peaches, I’ll be sure to save you some.”

A few days later, Alice brought more peaches. Katie helped Mom wash them. Then she watched Mom put most of them in boiling water. After they were dipped in cold water, Katie cut them in half with a butter knife. She couldn’t help tasting a piece. She kept tasting pieces until she got full.

“Mommy, why are we putting my big, beautiful peaches into these glass jars?” she asked.
Her mother explained that they were for food storage. “We are going to do what Joseph in Egypt did.” Katie wanted to hear about Joseph, so while they bottled the peaches, Mom told her the story of Joseph and his coat of many colors. She told Katie about how his brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt, where he became a friend of Pharaoh. She explained that Joseph told Pharaoh to store food during the seven years when there was lots of it. Then they could eat it during the seven years when there would be very little food for them.

“The prophet has asked us to store food while we can, because we may need it later,” she said. Katie wanted to follow the prophet, so she decided that putting the peaches in bottles was a good idea. She had learned a lot more than how to bottle fruit.

Katie didn’t want to wait for a famine, though. She was glad that they had saved some of the big, beautiful, very tasty peaches for her to eat right away.

Questions:

• How many different ways can you think of to use a jar of peaches?
• What other foods could you can?
• Why is canning a good idea for your food storage?
• What is a famine? (for older children)
• How could following the prophet help the people of Egypt at the time of the famine? (for older children)
• How can canning help us follow the prophet?

If we are prepared with our food storage we won’t have to worry in times of a famine or storm. Just like Noah brought food for his family and the animals in the ark, we can store our own food in our “ark” in our food storage.

Activity:

• Play “Food BINGO”-Place a button on the food storage item when it is called out.
• Food Storage Match up - Match up the food storage items and talk about how you could help each other as a family (draw pictures of food storage items or labels/boxes and cut them in half to match up)
• Food Scavenger Hunt- make a list of food storage items and have the children search to find where they can be found
• Go to the orchard and pick peaches or other fruits and vegetables. Eat right away or can them.

Cut these strips of paper apart to call out the BINGO squares. For BINGO markers, cut up colored construction paper or use coins or buttons.

Use clipart for games as desired:

Closing Song: We Are Not Ashamed to Own Our Lord – H 57

Treat:

Applesauce Cake

1 2/3 cups all purpose flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ teaspoon allspice
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup applesauce
1/3 cup oil
1 teaspoon vinegar

Mix dry ingredients. Stir in liquid ingredients completely. Pour into an ungreased 8-inch square pan. Bake at 350°F for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool. Dust with powdered sugar just before serving.

Use items only from your food storage to make a treat (including powdered milk, eggs, etc.).

Other Activities:

1. During the “harvest season”, go as a family to a local farm and pick fruits and vegetables for home or for canning.
2. Read the story of the famine found in Genesis 41. How could the people have prepared for this famine?
3. Read D&C 89 and decide how these foods could be put into your food storage.
4. Visit the local cannery and purchase food storage items. (Adults can also work in the cannery to help can their foods).
5. Make an inventory of your food storage. Do you have enough for everyone in your family for 3, 6, 12 months?
6. Have a Canning Day. Learn how to can produce bought from the farm, bought from the store, or grown in your family garden.
7. Match food storage items to letters of the alphabet on index cards.
8. Play grocery store with the food storage items.
9. Choose a day each week or month to have a food storage meal night. Eat only from your food storage for that meal.
10. Plant, harvest, and store your food from your family garden. Have a family workday to work in the garden. Share your harvest with other families.
11. Talk about the “sealing” process involved in canning and relate it to a forever family. Read “Preserving JAM (and Families)” in FRIEND July 2004 p. 4-6.
12. List ways to “preserve” your family during trials, tribulations, and outside influences.
13. Read “Canning Jars and Prophets” in FRIEND October 2006 p. 38-39.
14. Read “Year’s Supply Bread” in FRIEND April 1994 p. 8.
15. Read “The Anderson’s Ark” in FRIEND Nov. 1990 p. 9-10.
16. Grocery shop for food storage items each week. (See “Food Storage for $5 a Week” handout).
17. Date your canned goods, jars, and other food storage items when you get home from the store. Don’t forget to rotate!
18. Refer to Essentials of Home Production and Storage (Distribution Center).
19. Refer to Blue Book of Preserving (canning guidebook).


Prepared by the Harrisville 2nd Ward EP Committee
Source: SugarDoodle.net (FHE by: Janetta Graham)