What's the deal with Mormons and stockpiling food?

Factual Questions
1

Apparently, according to a friend-of-a-friend, Mormons have a religious obligation to stockpile several year’s worth of food, and I’m assured that if I walk into any basement or pantry in Utah I will find it chock-full of all sorts of canned goods and such.

There is no explanation, but the FOAF from who this story came from is apparently the self-professed Worst Mormon Ever, who apparently by that point was too drunk to provide any coherent explanation, so I’m not sure how true this may or not be.

If it is…why?

2

As I understand it, it’s not so much a religious thing per se, but a practical measure which is encouraged in the religion. Sure, it’s good to have a stockpile if some unanticipated disaster should fall, but it also lets you do things like take advantage of sales to buy particular foods when they’re cheap.

3

Back in the 70’s it was recomended by the church leadership that every family have one year’s supply of food, etc stored in their home in case of another depression, world war, breakdown of civilization or the apocalypse. Many Utah families took this very seriously and kept not only food (commonly 100-lb tubs of wheat) but blankets, clothing, medical supplies, water, water purification supplies, hunting rifles and ammunition, generators and all kinds of other stuff.

A one year’s supply was more than most families could muster, so some time in the 80’s it was scaled back to a 72-hour emergency survival kit. Sale of these kits rose in anticipation of the Y2k crash, which fortunately was averted by diligent coders.

I’m waiting for an active mormon to come in and say “no, it was never for the apocalypse. That’s folk doctrine”. Apparently much of what the church taught in the 70’s and earlier is now officially ‘folk doctrine’.

4

We bought our house from Mormons, and I am typing this just feet away from their old storage room, which had a door to the outside but no connection to the inside. Almost the first improvement we made to the house was to seal the door, knock down the wall, and carpet the room.
I don’t know if they all do it, but some do.

5

As is common, the misinformation in your post is in proportion to its level of sarcasm.

Yes, Mormons are urged to keep a food supply on hand, which is part of a broader emphasis on preparedness and self-reliance. Chronos pretty much hit it on the head. In practice, there are three tiers of preparation: the 72-hour emergency kits, a medium-term supply of typical food that you basically treat as a large pantry and eat through regularly, and a long-term supply of stuff like grain or rice that will keep indefinitely. Members are encouraged to put whatever resources into their food storage that they can reasonably afford.

Another (less prominent) example of that same emphasis is how the Mormon leadership has been focusing on making the church buildings in Utah earthquake-resistant, most notably with the renovation of the Tabernacle. Of course, Salt Lake is no San Francisco, but the general perspective is that you’re better safe than sorry.

For the curious, what appears to be the church information hub on food storage can be found here.

6

Yep, what he said. It’s a six-month supply now that’s recommended for most people, since few have the space for a whole year.

Food storage serves a whole bunch of purposes, the apocalypse being one of the less prominent ones. 72-hour kits are just for emergencies in general–if there’s a wildfire, an earthquake, a flood, or what-have-you, you can take your kit with you and not have to worry about what you’re going to eat, drink, or wear in the immediate future–thus lessening the burden on whatever relief is available (if any) and being in a better position to help others.

A large, long-term pantry is practical for lots of things–huge storms that make it difficult to leave the house, long power outages, employment woes, spikes in food prices, food panics, that sort of thing. When you lose your job, it’s nice to know that at least you won’t starve any time soon. It saves a lot of money to have food storage, since you can buy everything in bulk on sale and just have it on hand, skipping purchases when they’re not on sale. When a storm hits and everyone is buying all the bottled water, you don’t even have to go to the store. And you can share with your neighbors.

And, should things get really difficult someday, you’ve got a lot of wheat and rice and beans to eat. The LDS Church maintains its own store of such things as well, and is frequently the first to show up with emergency food relief, because it’s all ready to go. (If you’re ever in Salt Lake City, a tour of Welfare Square is truly fascinating, I recommend it.)

We’re also big on gardens, producing your own food, and self-sufficiency in general, as much as possible. Even if you live in an urban apartment, you can grow tomatoes on the balcony and keep extra food under the bed.

Of course, actual Mormons vary in how well they manage food storage. I need a lot of improvement! But I also have a friend whose husband is a real estate agent in an area that has tanked–she’s been feeding her family on food storage and fresh food from garden/friends for months now, nearly a year. Every once in a while she gets a little money and spends it on meat or something, but she almost never goes to the store and is living on almost no income at all.

7

Interesting - my initial reaction was to assume that it was some ‘hoarde food and don’t touch it unless the apocalypse happens and you’re stuck here on earth,’ which didn’t make much sense, because I imagine that the assumption would be that all the good little religious folk would be heaven-bound by that point.

But I must admit it does make a bit of sense. I know Utah’s pretty safe from natural disasters, but from an economic perspective, it’s not a bad idea.

8

What natural disasters are you referring to? True, we don’t have hurricanes and tornadoes (well, there’s been a few tornadoes), but Salt Lake is sitting on an active fault (we’re waiting for the big one!) and there are plenty of areas in Utah that get hit with snow–not polite snow. Big, serious storms that can block roads and kill power for days in rural places. Hell, my grandparents are basically inaccessible from like November until May…

9

Mormons don’t believe in a rapture – in Mormonism, everybody, good, bad, and ugly, will be stuck here going through the bad stuff predicted in Revelation until the second coming of Jesus. Except those who are, you know, actually killed by the bad stuff.

10

Where’s the misinformation? You proved my sarcasm correct with your snide little insult before you added more detail to what I posted. Thank you and dangermom for adding details to the solid information I gave.

FYI, I live in Utah, half my neighbors are active mormons and I was raised mormon in the 70’s, so I have a little insight into what the church was like in the 70’s and what it’s like now. In the 70’s, many Utah families were serious about having enough food and other supplies to last their whole family a year. And it was in the 80’s that the church leadership started talking about broader emergency preparedness than just a year’s supply of food, ie 72-hour kits in case of earthquake, flood, power outage, snow storms, etc. There are stores here in Salt Lake City that specialize in 72-hour emergency survival kits.

I spent the last weekend with my parents in Provo, Utah. My dad, a Mormon, former bishop and stake president who is very active in the community and charity was talking about food storage, how the scriptures (Old Testament, New Testament and writings by Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and John Taylor) foretell of a coming famine, that we are approaching the ‘end times’, and how he would laugh at the neighbors when they’re living off their rice and beans and he has cans of ravioli in his pantry. He calls me after every General Conference to make sure that I have a 72-hour emergency kit (sleeping bags, candles, camp stove, tarps, flashlight and spare batteries, drinking water, some kind of prepared food, first-aid kit).

Add to that the fact that I’ve been unemployed for four months and my 5-gallon buckets of rice and beans (mormon upbringing coming through) got me through this jobless period. I think I know a little bit about Mormon food storage.

11

Yes indeedy. You’re mixing us up with evangelicals, NinjaChick–who pretty much think we’re the devil. We haven’t got a Rapture theology at all.

12

I should probably add that ideally, a family would be prepared in every way, with stocks of water, food, fuel, equipment, clothing/fabric, and of course money. Of course most people can’t manage to keep generators and tanks of fuel in the garage, but we do what we can manage, and the ward emergency prep person often keeps lists of what each family has so that resources can be shared when necessary. (For example, after a major storm last January that downed trees and structures and had a lot of people living without power for as long as a week, people called each household to check on immediate needs. Crews formed to take care of problems like hauling felled trees away from roofs or driveways, food, showers, and shelter were shared, etc.)

Mormons are quite likely to be interested in things like owning acres of land, keeping goats, doing minor farming, etc. in the name of self-sufficiency and preparedness.

Hope that gives you a more complete picture of the general idea.

13

I have been told that part of the “Mormons stockpile food” thing is that they’re also supposed to be ready to help others and have an obligation to do so; I’ve heard elsewhere that they’re only obligated to help other Mormons. Either one true?

14

They are definitely encouraged to help other people when they can, but at the same time they aren’t expected to store enough food for the whole neighborhood.
I haven’t heard anything about “only obligated to help other Mormons”, but with a decent understanding of human nature and tribalism, I wouldn’t be surprised if that is how it works out sometimes. The Mormon church does a lot of disaster relief. I understand that they donated much money and supplies to aid after the Indian Ocean tsunami.

15

[anecdote warning]
Our down-the-road neighbors (in Montana, not Utah) were very concerned with making sure all of the neighbors had food, water and enough wood and/or propane during power outages and bad snowstorms. There are other Mormons in town, but not out where we were.

We were always fine, but they always made sure.

(All of the neighbors meant 4 families)

16

We would definitely feel obligated to help others. Current LDS welfare systems are set up to assist a lot of people in various ways.

17

Yet another anecdote, but the LDS I know definitely stockpile (I helped move quite a few 50 pound bags of wheat when they moved!)

Even singles that are in college are encouraged to stockpile a certain amount.

It is mostly just preparedness for “Whatever” might happen. The talk of the Second coming is mentioned sometimes, but it’s not specifically for that.

Stockpiling is for the family, but they are probably very willing to share with anyone else who needs it, and I doubt that it matters if they are LDS or not. That part is not directed by the church in any way that I know, but probably just depends on the opinions of the family…and those can vary, of course. Most/all that I know are very giving, I have no doubts they would share if it came to it.

Stockpiling is not just a religious thing…it just plain makes sense.

18

Here are two recent related threads:

2 years=a mountain of food?

Are there foods that don’t go bad?

I feel that I could really learn a lot from Mormon disaster-preparedness practices! Anybody have a link to some basic guidelines or suggestions? It would be especially useful if the guidelines accounted for those of us who live in apartments. Thanks.

19

This is probably the only area in which I wish the Mormon church had more influence over daily life in California.

20

Can you clear up something else? I worked with a Mormon gentleman in Seattle. He had two kitchens in his house and said that this wasn’t uncommon for Mormons. Why would you need (or use) two kitchens?