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?

Indeed.

What are they hiding? And right on cue, 2 storms back to back and over 90000 houses with no power,some of them for several days.

This is desperate politicians encouraging a mini retail boom for a BBC economic headline to assist their snap election.

The advice hasn’t changed, the disaster preparedness list has always existed, it’s just recently been updated (which happens every few years), and therefore it’s hit the news.
they’ve actually reduced the water they suggest you have stored, it used to be 10 litres per person!!

I was just reading this, a whistle, paper map of the area, duct tape, a sleeping bag - what are we preparing for a treasure hunt

Don’t be daft. They’ve just issued some common sense advice.

I have a few torches but I've realised they are all tiny. Can anyone recommend a decent torch please? My house is tiny but I'm accident prone so need all the help I can get!

No help on the big torch, but I find a head torch is useful if you don’t have one.

It’s all part of a bigger conversation that needs to be established on how we work together as a nation. The last time Britain was at risk of being affected by a war, there was quite a lot of community and generally a feeling of cohesion. Falkland’s, Gulf etc were never really a threat to our nation. I am talking about WW2 when I refer to the last real threat.
Now in 2026, the world is a different place. We have lived through decades of peace and most youngsters don’t understand “wartime”. Those who do think they understand it, simply think of it as a battlefield.
Our country and our sense of identity is completely disorientated. Those who “hate the boats” but “love Britain” are actually playing right into the hands of our adversaries. That’s the kind of division they need. Britain is weak in a way that nobody sees.
the government need to step up the narrative. The stockpiling is just testing the water. I have no idea how they will build the kind of sentiment that’s needed to protect the nation if our adversaries are successful but theres a lot more to do.
Don’t take the message of stockpiling a few tins as indicative of an imminent attack. We don’t really know what an attack will look like, much like 911 took the world by surprise. It won’t be traditional warfare. That’s certain. It’s likely to be a coordinated combination of many things (cyber, utilities (eg poison in our water supply or taking out a whole electrical network), cutting cables in the North Sea, drones that appear to be harmless).
what we definitely know is what we need as a defence: A cohesive nation. People who pull together for the same cause. Citizens who will give their skills to collaborate on whatever we need to retaliate.

we are miles away from that as a nation because theres so much division and hate and misunderstanding.

I have been trying to stockpile Chocolate Smarties but it appears I can eat them faster than I can buy them.

I have concluded that it is due to their size, so I'm going to try stockpiling Malteasers.

Should that fail I shall move onto Chocolate Oranges.

(I have to say that this Government is coming out with some very sound advice.👏)

As others have said perhaps not new things happening but people buying differently and not doing a big shop. Like the op, having a dark house and imagining what power out would be like - and me thinking well it's like a power cut, you get candles out !

We’ve always been prepared. We have Go Bags for each person at home, had wind up torches/radios/head torches for years. Always have a good supply of essentials. We don’t bother stocking up freezer, pointless if there are prolonged power cuts. If disaster strikes and we are not together, we have a prearranged meet up point. I’ve been laughed at for my preparedness, doesn’t bother me in the slightest.

As the batteries in my portable radio last over 6 months, it'd have to be an apocalyptic event.

Battery powered radios are fine, as long as you have batteries

Wine. Gin. Biscuits.

We live in a village so we always have a weeks worth in the cupboard through winter in case of power cuts, floods, massive snow etc so it’s situation normal here. Most people who don’t live on the breadline will have a few days of food in the house as a matter of course, especially at this time of year when people start hoarding for Christmas.

eta also candles, torches, plenty of wood for the fire. What concerns me is that in 3 years time massive amounts of out of date tinned food will be dumped because it’s been kept locked away in the apocalypse cupboard and not rotated through the kitchen.

Nope.
There will be people who are living hand to mouth and won't be able to stockpile or have the room.
I can't see the point. I think its just scaremongering.

The most important thing is to make sure it's food you will eat anyway.

And everybody is different... I have a few health issues and eat a low-carb diet. The thing I have in my apocalypse cupboard. (a.k.a. a plastic storage tub, or two). Packets of broccoli and cauliflower rice.(very long dates) tins of things I don't regularly eat, but we eat occasionally such as lentil Bolognese (I'm also vegetarian)& other vegetarian tins of stews etc. Although they are all nicer heated, they are also all edible cold. Low-carb noodles.& stir in sauces. Tins of soup. KIND bars, they are some 'a sometimes treat' normally too, (relatively low carb for that type of thing) but I could have them for breakfast if necessary ( I usually have Greek recipe yogurt, so as long as the fridge keeps cold. I'd have a few days in of that anyway. & cheese & veg. I have vegetables and vegetarian sausages in the freezer & it's a good freezer and not terribly old so if I don't open it, the food in there should last quite a few days. I also have some Costa Coffee latte powder tubs. So only need hot water to make a very decent coffee. Peanuts almonds. And bottled water.

I don’t think we’re talking about preparing for the Apocalypse (I’m a child of Threads, if nuclear war comes, I hope to be vaporised) but just a bit of sensible resilience. We have plenty of food in cupboards and freezer and a gas BBQ, so we won’t starve. But I have bought a decent battery powered torch and ensured my wine supplies are plentiful 😂

Before supermarkets were invented, there were local shops. Everything today relies on the internet and is mostly cashless. A serious hack on our supply chain or essential services by a state nation hacker could bring everything to a stop for several days.

If we move into conflict it's likely that this will take the form of our enemy attacking our essential services rather than bombs and "on the ground" fighting. We are an island and vulnerable to events elsewhere for our essential services (a lot of our electricity comes from France)

A lot of people don't have access to a "local shop". In the even of severe weather (which we are predicted this year) there could be snow or flooding.

Advice is literally to have a few things in incase of a dramatic event, whether that be weather or something else.

No one is saying buy so much yore sitting on tins in the bath.

What a fabulous image!

Part of the problem is due to steep population rise we absolutely could not be self sufficient if we were cut off from mainland Europe. We would mostly starve. It takes around an acre of land to feed 1 person, and we have 41 million acres of farmland and ~80 million people. We’ve destroyed our food security which is sad.

Amazon has got sets of 2 head torches for under £10.

I'm certainly not preparing for the apocalypse, if it's nuclear, I'll be running TO it, not away from it. But with my health issues and I am now disabled, it just makes sense to be as self-sufficient as I can be for as long as I can be, so that I'm not a burden on anybody else.

I'm glad you've got your wine supply sorted!!

You have to make your own decision.
Adults can crack on and if they end hungry and in the dark well, they were warned.
In your shoes I would make sure I had nappies, formula if needed, longlife food for your kids and light sources that are safe around young children. Warm clothes they haven't outgrown.
I've not stockpiled but made sure I can keep my kids comfy for a week. If there is a disaster I might feed your kids, but not you.

Thank you. Hadn't thought of that option. I have light up stuff for the dog so I can light her up as well.

If we need a wind up radio then we are in some crazy trouble. Small battery powered radio and spare batteries should do. You cannot get it for £10 in Argos.

Thank you.