Corrine StokoeIs it just me, or was 2020 a kick in the pants about being PREPARED?! Seriously, never in my life have I seen essentials cleaned off shelves like the first few months of 2020. I promised myself when things started to normalize a little, I would really spend some time getting our house in order.
I’ve already been working on my backstock of our most needed household items, and now it’s time to tackle food storage!
I wanted to make sure that if anything like the pandemic hit again, we would be totally prepared and able to pull from food storage to make meals for our family with no problems. That’s when I found Hibernate! Make sure you stick around until the end for an exclusive discount code too!
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But, why food storage?
Let’s be honest, there are more exciting things out there to buy than food storage. But like I mentioned a second ago, the feeling of being under-prepared when the craziness of 2020 hit was not the kind of feeling I want to find myself in ever again. The crazy thing is, I KNOW BETTER!!!
So now, I do better.
I’m getting serious about actually stocking up on a 3-month supply for all 6 of us. We’re not doing it all at once, but I’m starting and planning to build up our supply over time.
How much food storage do you need?
Neil and I first invested in food storage about 10 years ago. Our Church teaches a lot about preparedness, so it was a big deal to us to have our own supply of food for our household. The Church suggests having a 3 month supply of food per person on hand.
When we first got married, all we could afford is a 3 month supply for one person, so that’s where we started! Obviously, our family has grown quite a bit since those days, so it was time to find a new solution for food storage. And I really want to hit that goal of a 3 month supply per person in our home.
FEMA, also known as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, recommends a two-week supply of food storage per person in every household. So if you’re looking for a good starting point, Hibernate has a 2-week supply with variety of their best-selling food.
Why Hibernate?
There have been so many advances in the taste and quality of dehydrated meals in the past decade. When I knew we needed a new solution, I set to work to find something that I felt comfortable keeping for emergencies!
I decided on FOUR perimeters that I wanted to stick with after looking into a few different options. My must-haves included:
1) long shelf life
2) good storage: flood-proof, safe from rodents and animals
3) super easy to prepare
4) TASTES GOOD!
Tons of companies specialize in food storage, but it’s either not palatable, super expensive, or doesn’t store well! Hibernate has addressed all these problems. Did you know that a lot of food storage companies lower daily calories to only 1600 per person to save money? Hibernate’s meals are all a part of a 2000 calorie a day diet, SUPER important for staying nourished and strong.
They also do NOT use calorie fillers like sugary drinks to count toward the daily calorie count.
Instead you’ll see food your family already probably loves to eat, like fettucine alfredo, spaghetti, vanilla protein shakes, maple brown sugar oatmeal, and yummy soups.
Seriously, their food is so good that sometimes when I don’t want to think about what to make on a super busy night, I’ve pulled out one of their meals and just added water and boiled on the stove, and 20 minutes later everyone is scarfing down dinner asking for seconds and thirds.
Hibernate’s method of dehydrating and freeze drying foods enables the meals to have longer shelf life. In this case, 25 years!! Hibernate has been around for 75 years so they have actually tasted the 25 year old food storage and it’s STILL GOOD. In addition to their drying process that creates shelf-stable meals, Hibernate uses good, quality ingredients so that the food simply tastes good!
Hibernate also offers 0% APR to put the food storage for your family on a payment plan if you need that, so you don’t have to pay the whole thing right now.
How much will food storage cost?
The very cheapest way to do your food storage is to buy a little more than you need each time you go to the grocery store, and be really good about rotating through what you already have and disciplined about keeping track of how much of each food category you need.
This totally can be done!
And tons of families rock at this.
I just know that with this method, I’m not super good at keeping track of everything well enough to not let food go to waste and actually use up what’s going to expire, and remember to buy what we need to replenish enough for this to be enough alone.
This is where the convenience of doing it all at once through a company like Hibernate is super helpful if you want to knock it all out at once, or in a few waves.
Hibernate has TONS of different packages you can view here for all different family sizes and lengths of time you want to have covered.
You really can start SMALL and get a 2-week supply here that breaks down to $1.19 per serving. I know more than one family who have lived off their food storage during times when money was really tight or through a job loss. This is a really affordable way to have something sitting in your home, that will last for 25 years, that you’ll be so glad you have if you ever need it.
The Meals
I’m no stranger to dehydrated food; I actually used to go backpacking with my dad every summer growing up, and we would bring along dehydrated backpacker meals JUST like Hibernate! I wanted something super simple like this: one-pot just add water meals that I wouldn’t have to piece together ingredients for. To me, if you have an emergency, I want these meals to be SO easy that even a child could make them!
For these meals, all you have to do is literally open the package and add water.
That’s it!
Most of them you boil in water, and others are snacks that don’t call for anything else! Millie was snacking on some banana chips from Hibernate today and was LOVING it!! They have food options like oatmeal and pudding, mushroom rice, and a variety of pastas. We have loved everything that we’ve tried so far, and our kids have too (no easy feat!).
The Benefits
First things first, the taste thing was really important to me for obvious reasons. But also I kept thinking about how when 2020 hit the fan, I couldn’t get my hands on so many essentials like dried pasta or rice. I ended up special ordering my flour from a different state!
When I couldn’t give my family any variety, is was super hard as a wife and mother who loves to cook. I realized how important it is to have MEALS at the ready, not just ingredients and recipes that are subject to grocer availability. Truly, if there ever is another pandemic or our power is out for days at a time, or an earthquake, we are actually prepared to eat food that tastes good and sustains our family (without sugary fillers!).
Another thing I love about Hibernate is that these meals come in large SEALED, super strong plastic containers. This is really comforting to me because I know the food can’t be disturbed by a flood or pests! The containers are also SUPER easy to move around and in an emergency can be thrown into your car fast!
Jeans
Cast Iron Dutch Oven, similar for less
Exclusive Discount Code
I’m so excited to be able to give you guys an exclusive Hibernate discount code so you can start stocking up and feeling prepared too.
Use code MINTARROW at checkout to get 20% off your Hibernate order.
Preparedness: Priceless
We’ve known people personally who have lost jobs and literally survived because of their food storage! I’m super passionate about this subject because it’s not just a far-fetched thing in the future to worry about; I’m certain that food storage has sustained many families over the last year during the pandemic.
After putting it off for way too long, I am now comforted knowing that we are truly prepared because of Hibernate. We have plenty of food for our family of 6. This is totally something you can start small and build up a little at a time too! It’s ALWAYS an investment into your future to prepare, but one you’ll never regret!
