President Ezra Taft Benson

Ensign, Nov 1987

The revelation to produce and store food may be as essential to our temporal welfare today as boarding the ark was to the people in the days of Noah.

J. Reuben Clark, Jr.

"The Deseret News," February 8, 1941

We are approaching troublesome times. I have been talking about them for years. They seem to be upon us. We shall have a period-how long I know not-of what we shall call prosperity; and then there will be something else. I have felt from the time this plan was put into operation that what we were really doing here was not alone caring for

our people at this time, where there were so many other avenues open for them to get their help, but we were building for future times when we might need all of our experience, all of our training and skill, all of our intelligence to preserve ourselves and those who might be less fortunate among us than we ourselves may personally be.

I for one can visualize a condition, it may or may not come, when the best of us today will be not much better off than the poorest of us are now, I do not want to seem too pessimistic, but the world faces one of the greatest crisis in its history, and no mortal man, without the inspiration of the Lord, can tell where it will lead.

Harold B. Lee

Conference Report, April 1946, p.71

The Lord has given us in this day the greatest organization upon the face of the earth, with his power and his authority to direct it. He has given us sound principles; he has shown us the plan and the way by which want and distress may be done away among us. He has shown us the way to brotherly love. If the afflictions which have been predicted come upon us, they will come upon us because we have not kept the faith and because we have been disobedient and have thrown away the opportunities that our Heavenly Father has given us to prepare for the day of calamity which he foretold, over one hundred years ago, would come in this generation.

President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.

Welfare Conference, The Assembly Hall

October 11, 1958

"I still have apprehension that we may have hard times. I still fear that we are going to have a war before too long that on each side will be intended to be a virtually exterminating war. I would like each one of you to think of having around you-you farmers-a production that would enable you to live (and possibly for a while without much

mechanization), and help some of your city folk to live, too. It is a terrible picture even to think about, but we will be shortsighted if we do not."

Harold B. Lee on President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.

From "The Improvement Era" Magazine, Article "President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.-An Appreciation on His 90^{th Birthday" by Harold B. Lee September 1961, pgs. 632-33}

We heard him reply in answer to a question as to why he had put his life savings into his presently owned Grantsville ranch; "This is all I have to leave to my family when I die, and if they are not too lazy to work it, they won't starve. I have told them that when the first atomic bomb is dropped here in America, that they are to go out there on the ranch and stay until it is over." This last seemed not only to be wise council, but also a prophecy. His only son, J. Reuben Clark, III, is the family steward of this practical and foresighted legacy.

Harold B. Lee

Welfare Agricultural Meeting

April Conference, 1969

Now let's not be foolish and suppose that because the sun is shining today that there won't be clouds tomorrow. The Lord has told us by revelation some of the things that are ahead of us, and we living in the day when the fulfillment of those prophecies is now at hand, and we are startled, and yet there is nothing happening today that the prophets didn't foresee.

Victor L. Brown

October Conference, 1975

We realize that it sounds as though these represent some extremes; however, they also represent the facts of life. There are few of us who do not need bolstering in some aspects of personal welfare at some time in our lives.

In the Welfare Services session of conference held last April, Bishop H. Burke Peterson described family preparedness this way: "When we speak of family preparedness, we should speak of foreseen, anticipated, almost expected needs which can be met through wise preparation. Even true emergencies can be modified by good planning."

Family preparedness is the key to meeting personal welfare needs for the members of the family. Every other aspect of Welfare Services, such as ward preparedness, is designed to support family preparedness.

Home production and storage: The prepared family has sufficient stores to take care of basic needs for a minimum of one year. Further, they are, where possible, actively involved in the growing, canning, and sewing, and production of their year's supply.

Spencer W. Kimball

October 1976 Regional Representatives

Seminar Address

Preparedness, when properly pursued, is a way of life, not a sudden, spectacular program.

Barbara B. Smith

October Conference, 1976

1. Basic Food Storage. Included in the year's supply of basic foods should be life-sustaining foods that store well for a long time: grains (wheat, rice, corn, or other of the cereal grains); dried milk, dried fish or protein vegetables such as beans and peas and other fresh, canned, dried, or pickled fruits and vegetables; sugar or a sugar substitute such as honey; some form of fats; salt; and water. Fresh taro or sweet potato, and live pigs, chickens, or fish might be considered as a supply in some area of the world where it is difficult to store food. Remember that regular use of whole grains is important in building a digestive tolerance for roughage.

2. Basic Clothing and Fuel Storage

3. Emergency Storage. You may wish to consider storing, where they could be picked up at a moment's notice, such items as water, food needing no refrigeration or cooking, medications needed by family member, a first-aid booklet and first-aid supplies, an ax, shovel, and blanket. These would be used when a family or individual only has a short time to flee a disaster or needs to stay in a sheltered area within the home. It is also wisdom to have the family's important papers and documents together where they could be picked up at a moment's notice.

4. Expanded Storage. Families may also wish to expand their basic storage to include foods and other daily essentials that would supply total nutritional needs and allow for variety and personal preferences in diet and living. These would be things normally used every day, for which frequent shopping is done.

I repeat, home storage should consist of a year's supply of basic food, clothing, and where possible, fuel. After this goal is reached, emergency and expanded storage is desirable.

In all of our storage, quality products, proper containers and storage facilities, proper storage temperature, and regular rotation are important considerations. Some of the recent disasters in which Church members have been involved show that there is a need for diversification in places of storage and in types of containers. Perhaps not all storage should be concentrated in one area of the houses, not all should be stored in tin or plastic containers, not all in glass containers.

I outlined in the April 1976 welfare services meeting eight suggested topics for Relief Society homemaking mini-classes. I repeat these by way of review:

How to save systematically for emergencies and home storage.

How to, what to, and where to store.

How to store seeds, prepare soil, acquire proper tools for gardening.

How to grow your own vegetables.

How to can and dry foods.

How to teach and help your family eat foods needed for physical health.

How to do basic machine and hand sewing, mending, and clothing remodeling.

How to plan and prepare nutritious, appetizing meals, using the resources available and foods from home storage shelves.

May I also strongly urge stake and district Relief Society leaders to encourage miniclass instruction on how to use the basic food storage items in daily diets. I ask Relief Society leaders to secure and study approved materials on home storage appropriate to local culture, climate, and area; to counsel with local priesthood leaders and make realistic storage plans available to the people in their area. Plans for storage may vary according to the circumstances of individuals or families. But always the guidelines will be helpful that are set forth in the Church Welfare Services Department bulletin, "Essentials of Home Storage," available through Church Distribution. Local university and

government departments could also be a source of help.

Spencer W. Kimball

April Conference, 1977

The Lord goes further and says:

"I will...destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your highways shall be desolate." (Lev. 26:22.)

Can you think how the highways could be made desolate? When fuel and power are limited, when there is none to use, when men will walk instead of ride? Have you ever thought, my good folks, that the matter of peace is in the hands of the Lord who says:

"And I will bring a sword upon you..." (Lev. 26:25.)

Would that be difficult? Do you read the papers? Are you acquainted with the hatreds of the world? What guarantee have you for permanent peace?

"...and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy." (Lev.

26:25.)

Are there enemies who could and would afflict us? Have you thought of that?

"And I will make your cities waste," he says, "and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation....

"Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies' land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths.

"As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest [when it could] in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it." (Lev. 26:31,

34-35.)

Those are difficult and very serious situations, but they are possible.

The Lord uses the weather sometimes to discipline his people for the violation of his laws.

We deal with many things which are thought to be not so spiritual; but all things are spiritual with the Lord, and he expects us to listen, and to obey, and to follow the commandments.

Bruce R. McConkie

April Conference, 1979

I stand before the Church this day and raise the warning voice. It is a prophetic voice, for I shall say only what the apostles and prophets have spoken concerning our day. It is a voice calling upon the Lord's people to prepare for the

For the moment we live in a day of peace and prosperity but it shall not ever be thus. Great trials lie ahead. All of the sorrows and perils of the past are but a foretaste of what is yet to be. And we must prepare ourselves temporally and spiritually.

There will be earthquakes and floods and famines. The waves of the sea shall heave themselves beyond their bounds, the clouds shall withhold their rain, and the crops of the earth shall wither and die.

It is one of the sad heresies of our time that peace will be gained by weary diplomats as they prepare treaties of compromise, or that the Millennium will be ushered in because men will learn to live in peace and to keep the commandments, or that the predicted plagues and promised desolations of latter days can in some way be avoided.

We must do all we can to proclaim peace, to avoid war, to heal disease, to prepare for natural disasters-but with it all, that which is to be shall be.

We must maintain our own health, sow our own gardens, store our own food, educate and train ourselves to handle the daily affairs of life. No one else can work out our salvation for us, either temporally or spiritually.

We do not say that all of the Saints will be spared and saved from the coming day of desolation. But we do say there is no promise of safety and no promise of security except for those who love the Lord and who are seeking to do all that he commands.

It may be, for instance, that nothing except the power of faith and the authority of the priesthood can save individuals and congregations from the atomic holocausts that surely shall be. And so we raise the warning voice and say: take heed; prepare; watch and be ready. There is no security in any course except the course of obedience and conformity and righteousness.

Knowing what we know, and having the light and understanding that has come to us, we must-as individuals and as a Church-use our talents, strengths, energies, abilities, and means to prepare for whatever may

befall us and our children.

We do not know when the calamities and troubles of the last days will fall upon any of us as individuals or upon bodies of Saints. The Lord deliberately withholds from us the day and hour of his coming and of the tribulations which shall precede it-all as part of the testing and probationary experiences of mortality. He simply tells us to watch

We can rest assured that if we have done all in our power to prepare for whatever lies ahead, he will then help us with whatever else we need.

and be ready.

troubles and desolations which are about to be poured out upon the world without measure.

Marion G. Romney

April Conference, 1979

Now I would like to repeat what you have heard a thousand times, more or less, about taking care of yourselves. You ought to know now, more than at any previous time, to make sure that you are prepared to go through a period of stress on the resources you have provided for yourselves. The necessity to do this may come any day. I hope it will

not come too soon. In fact, I hope it doesn't come in my lifetime. But it will come sooner or later.

Never forget this matter of providing for yourselves, even though you don't hear as much about it now as you did a few years ago. Remember that it is still a fundamental principle, one that has been taught the Saints ever since they came to these valleys of the mountains. We have always been urged to provide ourselves, in the day of harvest, enough to last until the next harvest. Be sure that you do so now. Be prepared to take care of yourselves through a period of need.

I don't know how things will work out. People say to me, "What will we do? If we have a year's supply and others do not, it will be gone in a day." Well, it will last as long as it lasts, but I'm not worried about this. If we will do what the Lord tells us to do, he will take care of us all right.

Bruce R. McConkie

April Conference, 1980

Nor are the days of our greatest sorrows and our deepest sufferings all behind us. They too lie ahead. We shall yet face greater perils, we shall yet be tested with more severe trials, and we shall yet weep more tears of sorrow than we have ever known before.

But the vision of the future is not all sweetness and light and peace. All that is yet to be shall go forward in the midst of greater evils and perils and desolations than have been known on earth at any time.

Victor L. Brown

April Conference, 1980

There should be no misunderstanding on this point. The fundamental principle of welfare services is that you and I provide for our own needs. If serious economic disruption were to occur, the Church would do all in its power to alleviate suffering by supplementing member efforts. But it would not be able to do for the Saints what we have been taught to do for ourselves for over forty years - that is, to have a year's supply of food, clothing, and, where possible, fuel; to have

A recent Church survey of a representative number of members in the United States indicates that in emergency circumstances - such as job loss, illness, or natural disaster - the average family had the following supplies: food, twenty-six weeks; clothes, fifty-two weeks; water, two weeks; and fuel, four days. This is not even close to a

year's supply. The survey also indicates that financial reserves are low. Only 17 percent could live for more than one year on their financial reserves if income were cut off; 45 percent reported they could only live for three months. The Lord says, "If ye are prepared ye shall not fear" (D&C 38:30). I suppose each of us knows into which category he falls. What a wonderful thing it would be if all were prepared.

savings in reserve, and to possess basic production skills. This counsel has been given at least twice a year for all these years. Some have followed the counsel of the Brethren and are prepared, as were the five wise virgins. Some, like the foolish virgins, do not have enough oil in their lamps.

J. Richard Clark

October Conference, 1980

One final concern of reserve deficiency is the need to insure against our greatest potential loss. I think we all would agree that our ability to earn is our greatest asset. When the provider insures his life, he is insuring his future income for his family. As husbands, let us not force our wives into the marketplace to be both the provider and homemaker should our lives be cut short by premature death. We can increase their options by proper insurance planning.

We would also urge each family to carry adequate health insurance. Medical costs are soaring, and trying to self-insure from personal savings is very risky. During inflation, medical costs increase faster than our savings accumulate.

There are some who feel that they are secure as long as they have funds to purchase food. Money is not food. If there is no food in the stores or in the warehouses, you cannot sustain life with money. Both President Romney and President Clark have warned us that we will yet live on what we produce.

I would like to make one point very clear. The welfare services program of the Church is essentially you and I being self-sufficient within our own families. The Church storehouse system is a backup system for the small number of members who are poor or physically handicapped, or for emergencies or disasters.

There is no way the Church, as an institution, intends to assume the responsibility that rightfully belongs to the individual. The welfare program was never designed to do so. Personal and family preparedness is the Lord's way. Then, by uniting together to pay generous fast offerings and by providing commodities from our projects and canneries, we can help our neighbor who cannot help himself.

Most important of all, brothers and sisters, with all our storing, let us store righteousness that we may stand approved of the Lord.

L. Tom Perry

April Conference, 1981

With such alarming results we must remind ourselves that the Church welfare system was never designed or intended to care for the healthy member who, as a result of his poor management of lack of preparation, has found himself in difficulty. It was designed to assist the membership in case of a large, physical disaster, such as an earthquake or a flood. It was designed to assist the ill, the injured, the incapacitated, and to rehabilitate them to a productive life. In far too many cases, members who should be making use of their own preparedness provisions are finding that there is nothing there and that they have to turn to the Church.

Boyd K. Packer

April Conference, 1982

Let me give you a modern-day example. President Kimball has been President of the Church for eight years. In virtually every conference sermon he has included at least a sentence telling us to clean up, paint up, and fix up our property. Many of us have paid little attention to the counsel.

Question: Why would a prophet tell us to do that? Has he no great prophecies to utter?

But, is that not a form of prophecy? For has he not said to us over and over again, "Take good care of your material possessions, for the day will come when they will be difficult, if not impossible, to replace."

For some reason, we expect to hear, particularly in welfare sessions, some ominous great predictions of calamities to come. Instead, we hear quiet counsel on ordinary things which, if followed, will protect us in times of great calamity.

F. Enzio Busche

"Ensign," June 1982

Frequently I am asked, "What were the most valuable items in the days of starvation in Germany?"

As for what we needed, the food item we relied on most was vegetable oil. With a bottle of vegetable oil, one could acquire nearly every other desirable item. It had such value that with a quart of vegetable oil one could probably trade for three bushels of apples or three hundred pounds of potatoes. Vegetable oil has a high calorie content, is easy to transport, and in cooking can give a tasty flavor to all kinds of food items that one would not normally consider as food – wild flowers, wild plants, and roots from shrubs and trees. For me and my family, a high-quality vegetable oil has the highest priority in our food storage, both in times of daily use and for emergency use. When vegetable oil is well-packed and stored appropriately, it has a long storage life without the necessity of refrigeration. We found ours to be in very good condition after twenty years of storage, but circumstances may vary in different countries and with different supplies.

The second highest priority item for me and my family is grain in all its forms, preferably wheat and rye. When grain is well-packed and well-preserved, it too is easy to transport, easy to store, and will last for generations.

A third priority item is honey. Its value in daily usage is immeasurable. My family prefers honey rather than sugar because our experience supports some of the research findings regarding the preeminence of honey. Another reason I prefer honey is because during the starvation period in postwar Germany, honey could be traded for three times as much as sugar; its value was considered that much greater.

A fourth important food storage product is powdered milk. These four basic items - oil, wheat, honey, and milk (or their equivalents in other cultures) - together with water, salt, and renewable basic foods such as potatoes and other vegetables, can satisfy nutritional requirements in times of emergency and also are valuable and usable in normal daily life.

You might ask, "What about the many other food items and desserts that play an important role in our eating habits?" I shall always treasure the great experience I had in those hard times, when I learned to appreciate food with the most balanced nutrients. When a person is very hungry, the taste of food will change for him. In times of emergency, the Lord seems to provide a way to help our bodies adapt.

James E. Faust

April Conference, 1986