Barbara J. Hamby

Clean the Pantry Day

Today is clean the pantry day in this household. This was precipitated by Al’s bringing home a few more bags of canned goods to add to the lifetime supply we already have. We could, I’m quite sure, stock a Mormon Stake House or run a soup kitchen with a very small investment for bread and milk. A full chest freezer and a bulging refrigerator with a freezer top fill out our food inventory.

I should make it clear that our pantry is not large enough to fulfill the above requirements. So we have cabinets in the kitchen and dining room, as well as floor space below the bathroom cabinets, loaded with canned goods.

We are setting up a system to index shelves in pencil on sheets of paper inside the pantry door. We can then erase and change the figures as we use the items. This will probably last as long as most systems. The last one (marking the dates of purchase on cans) lasted for a couple of grocery purchases. But, it will look good when it’s finished. I should probably take a picture for insurance purposes. No adjuster would ever believe the quantity of food we have unless the cans and bottles don’t totally self-destruct in a disaster.

We could put up a sign on the clubhouse bulletin board that anyone can borrow a cup of sugar (granulated, powdered, light brown, dark brown, and several varieties of imitation sugar), or a can of tomato sauce, pickled beets, hominy grits or any one of many other vegetables and fruits. It would probably be best to omit our address so that only dedicated sleuths can find us.

Since there is a food drive going on locally, a golden opportunity exists to dispose of surplus goods. I intend to take advantage of it.