Do we actually need to get two weeks of food in?

I was working in the Co Op when they were hacked. For about a fortnight our distribution chain was completely disrupted and shelves were empty a LOT, I presume because stores couldn't talk to warehouses to let them know what they had run out of. So one week we would have no bread at all for days, then we'd have loads of bread and absolutely no dairy produce.

And if electricity supplies are disrupted, freezers will go off, shops won't be able to operate and you could find you've got to cook a month's worth of food in a couple of days before it goes off, with no electricity to cook on.

I think it's common sense to have plenty of tinned/frozen/packets of food and drink "just in case". Saw the need in action during Storm Desmond about a decade ago where our entire city lost it's power when the electric sub station got flooded. It was several days before power was restored, during which time most shops, petrol stations, etc were closed. People were swapping packets/tins/bottles between neighbours just to be able to have something to eat and drink. The council/electric supplier provided a few hot catering vans dotted around the city, but they didn't come until the Tuesday following the power outage on the Saturday and most people needed to drive to them as, from memory, there were only a handful of catering vans for a city of 60,000 people! Even when shops could open based on mobile generators dotted around the city, they had no fresh/frozen/chilled food/drink to sell as it was all lost due to the fridges/freezers defrosting, so it took a few days for the lorries to re-stock the shops. The train station had no electricity, so people couldn't even get the train to the next town as trains weren't stopping at the station (unsafe due no no lighting/heating on the station!). I think having a week or two worth of basics to eat and drink is a pretty sensible thing to do!!

I live in Scotland. I think we just call it Winter.

Mobile food cans were deployed, people were given vouchers to use at pubs and restaurants with generators, leisure centres with generators were used etc

Why would you want to waste emergency resources that could be used for people that really need it, just because you are lazy and couldn’t be arsed to help yourself and others? Incredibly selfish behaviour.

as @Bjorkdidit said
"The question you should be asking yourself OP is why wouldn't you have a few spare supplies in, in case you're affected by 101 possible issues? Assuming you're not one of the minority who doesn't have any spare money at all and lives in a very small property such that you can't store anything spare."

Thats another issue is the shops even having to change to give out once everyone runs in with their £20 notes. They would hit a point where they just couldn’t give out change until people came in with change.

Not many people keep actual change in any decent quantity. We have notes in the house put apart from raiding the kids piggy banks which is mostly notes again we wouldn’t have small money.

As we don’t take out cash as a general rule apart from having a stash just in case. Or when going to coastal areas as a lot of places prefer or only take cash there.

How would I cook the food?

Why would these other people need it more than me? Surely they have also been incredibly selfish?

Why don’t you start by reading the guidance? 😂 It’s for people like you.

Shh.

Let people weed themselves out if something does happen.

😂 I honestly do not understand how some people get by in their daily life.

But yes, I will take your advice - thank you.

People just keep posting to say read the guidance. No one seems to be able to explain why this is necessary for people who live in urban areas.

They won't be able to WhatsApp the parent group and ask whether there is school on Wednesdays or not.

The only place I have seen this is on here. Where is the guidance and why, what for?

Ive got about 3 months worth of food in the cupboards and freezer to be fair, although by the end of it I would be living on rice with caraway seeds with some chutney perhaps.

I do like the look of those chilli noodles!

Only if there is cash

It's necessary because we live in extremely risky times, with unpredictable outcomes from scenarios we haven't faced yet.

Anybody with at least fleeting contact with reality, who is equipped with any mainstream mix of common sense and self-preservation would take at least some rudimentary precautions if they were in a position to do so. Building a bit of resilience into the inputs that sustain life is now recommended action.

Anyone who is determined not to is bloody self-deluded and, anyone who wails that they don't see the point - and therefore won't take really basic steps - is frankly a menace to everyone else.

Why don’t you read this brochure. Especially the Home Preparedness part. It’s really good with check lists and everything. I imagine the UK version is something similar. Ours is not that new and it’s not the first one we’ve had.

rib.msb.se/filer/pdf/30874.pdf

It was literally in the news last week.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp931m8n3p5o

Your last line literally made me laugh out loud.

I can imagine supermarket staff climbing over each other to be the one standing at the doors, shouting fuck off with great enthusiasm, to all the customers who have treated them like shit over the years, when the staff have had to just stand there and take it

Saying we live in risky times does not explain why anyone needs to keep a week’s worth of beans and noodles.

If the risk simultaneously closes every single shop without even a minute’s notice then I suspect we wouldn’t have to worry about making dinner.

It isn't new guidance. The media just jump on it whenever it's reviewed or updated.

Have you needed 2 weeks worth of food for the last 5 years?

You've been given several plausible scenarios:

• bad weather - interrupting the Just In Time supply chain
• failure of national IT systems - taking down the banking system or supermarket stock control
• failure of physical infrastructure - electricity grid damage (Spain 2025); contamination of water supply (Devon 2024)

No one can explain why.

I don't think you are understanding the reason. The shop won't have the food in store for you to go buy.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣