Are we actually stockpiling food following govt announcement??

[Mumoftwo8519]

DH and I have a 4 year old, 2 year old and a 9 month old baby. I feel like this govt announcement to stockpile food is just media scaremongering and I’ve ignored it up until now, but tonight after I put our children to bed and turned out their lights out and the house was pitch black I did think to myself, god what if this was actually it and we were put into a blackout.

Im worried about having food to feed my children, and the thought of them going hungry is starting to worry me, but I also cannot bring myself to believe something will actually happen??

is anyone else stockpiling? What kind of things are you getting? Are we actually going to eat cold beans from a tin?

my husband and I were talking about it tonight, and wondering what the govt are hiding?

I am not stockpiling much. I think we have quite a bit of food in anyway. We keep quite a few tins of things in the cupboard. I have bought some bottled water and long life milk. I can’t really bring myself to do anything more. I have a camping stove somewhere so if the electrics went we’d be able to cook for a day or two (until the gas runs out). I have got loads of candles.

they said 3 days of food. I assume you have that? We are not stockpiling anything but could live out the cupboards for probably 10 days

I'm not stockpiling (don't have the space) however the recent weather has made me think about just being aware of what's in the house / where are the torches. So I don't think it's harmful to think about it giving the storms and were going into winter. Don't think that should translate to mass panic/ panic buying. I just opened my cupboard and thought (for the first time) OK what can I feed the kids which is non cook. Do I have enough water to make through a couple of days? And I realised with big water outages I've been quite silly not ever stocking any. X

It is always sensible to have things available in case of power cuts, we’ve had a few over the years that haven’t been a big deal as had lights etc and something to cook on.

Had a couple of conversations in last few months that convinced me getting water in would also be sensible at this point. There’s enough food in the cupboards and freezer to keep us going for a few days.

Yes I am restocking my cupboard.

my village had a burst water main a week ago and we had no water for 24 hours. So after that I ordered a water butt for the garden and some bottled water.

we’ve also had storms this week that have meant power cuts for lots of homes.

so yeah, it makes sense to me.

having said that I did eat one of the chocolate bars before it made it to the cupboard.

I think what they are trying to encourage is to just not be running on empty. In the age of constant deliveries and Amazon prime etc I’m sure a lot of people go down to the wire before doing another shop so it’s just a push to ensure you don’t let your cupboards get bare before you do. Just keep a stocked pantry. Most older folk will be doing this routinely but I know all my family members who are in their twenties regularly have next to nothing in the house because they eat out a lot or they order deliveroo. Same probably goes for a lot of single men, my bachelor friend in his 40s gets a latte en route to the train and then food during the day at the office/in town and then he visits the supermarket every single night on his way home if he’s not going out to dinner and buys what he will eat that night. Seems a massive waste of time (and money) to me but it’s how he likes it and if he suddenly had this routine interrupted and no deliveries were available then he would genuinely struggle to feed himself for three days.

Absolutely no need for stockpiling. After the first covid lockdown, we managed to eat solely out of our own kitchen for more than a month thanks to delivery cancellations. Towards the end the food got a little boring, but I made bread, and the only things that were hard to do without after the first two weeks were eggs and milk (I now keep in some UHT stuff).

I just stockpile as an every day concept to be honest. My kitchen cupboards are awash with tins of peaches, beans, tuna and lentils. For once my lack of decluttering is looking intentional. Only downside is we’ll have to drink exclusively tonic, Diet Coke and flush the loo with schnapps from 2009.

They are not hiding anything. They are being realistic.

I agree with @SorryNotSorry6 that these messages are aimed at people like your bachelor friend, or my colleague who told me that her fridge contains all her face creams and serums, and no food at all. The only thing she has in her house to eat is instant noodles.

All the chat is making me twitchy after media hype this week , however I just don’t have the energy for the stock rotation system that will now have to be in place for everyone doing their ‘apocalypse shop ‘ !!

Thousands of households without power after this weekend's storms. Thinking a tiny bit ahead is sensible.

I've decided I'll just see who looks plump and complacent in the endtimes and take it from them 🙂‍↕️

3 days of food.
Surely you have that anyway?

This

Getting in a week's worth of food is not stockpiling, for most people it's a regular occurrence.

I got a bit fed up with it all following the stockpiling advice over BREXIT and Covid.

My God, I was still finding out of date sweetcorn in the garage years later, and a rat got very fat on the large bag of cat food we forgot about (I suppose we could have eaten HIM).

DH and I did have a discussion tonight about whether we have fuel for our two camping stoves (we do).

If you're investing in water butts etc, don't forget the Milton tablets or similar.

Just some bottled water, tins, batteries.

Please don’t panic.
Ensure you have a few long life things that are appropriate for your family’s needs - enough for maybe three or four days.
Make sure it’s food that they like; pouches, tins of fruit & veg, jars of pasta sauces, bottles, biscuits & crackers, etc etc. Ideally pretty filling & nutritious things but don’t sweat it too much. Do you have such things in your cupboards anyway? If not, add a few bits in with your next shops.
If they’re allergic to anything then obviously a few packs of free-from would be important.
In your shoes I’d add some nappies (guess the next couple of sizes, as best you can) & wipes, and any other hygiene essentials, maybe a first aid kit if you are really anxious.
Plus of course a few litres of water each for drinking & washing.
Torches, radio, power banks, plus books, colouring pens & pap, simple games to keep them busy too - again, you probably have plenty of those around.

This isn’t meant to be a Prepping for The End, but some basics to get your family over a bit of a blip in supply chains, lack of power etc.
I hope this will help you to get a little bit more organised & less worried.

Like most people we have at least three days’ food in stock. My problem is water - we don’t generally buy bottled water so I’m buying a bottle each week and storing it in the garage.

Honestly, no. I tend to keep a reasonably well stocked freezer/pantry. When we went into lockdown it was about 10 days before I needed to think about getting restocked.

Doing some general prep to include very elderly Father and Father-in-law. Bottled water, extra battery packs, lantern style torches and basic battery operated radios for them - but storing here - we can walk to them (opposite directions) in 30-40 minutes. Ensure they have at least a week's prescription meds. Encourage them to have a few tins of food but we have enough for them if they run out.

In the endtimes
You must have read some prophecies

What is the event that they say could happen that we need to stockpile for?

Can someone explain what a radio is for apart from listening to talk shows ?