Valley Food Storage
Stockpiling food has always been seen as a little “quirky” or even paranoid. Preppers have been stockpiling food for years, and while some people buy new iPhones or electronics, these individuals relish in the fact that they have enough food to last months or years without needing to go to the grocery store.
Valley Food Storage is a really popular company right now, especially with COVID-19 causing a panic worldwide.
If you turn on the television or go into a grocery store, you’ll find that people have flocked to the stores and have been hoarding food. People, when they’re in a state of fear, will gobble up the food supply, leaving store shelves bare.
Valley Food Storage is designed around long-term food storage.
Being in the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic has opened up a lot of people’s eyes and shown them that it’s now time to have food available before a disaster hits. Even now, in the middle of all of this chaos, it’s a good time to consider the best food storage companies and what they can offer you in terms of food security.
Who is Valley Food Storage?
Valley Food Storage (VFS) is a company dedicated to long-term food storage. The company’s storage containers last a long time (more on that soon), and they also run a preparedness blog that allows you to prepare for the worst.
I know myself, and many others, are building up our own emergency food supply.
In the worst-case scenario, I can save money on future food costs, and in the best-case scenario, I have food for months or years if I can’t get to the grocery store.
Considered one of the best food storage companies, VFS has been so packed with orders that partial orders are taking 3 to 4 weeks to fulfill – people are flocking to the brand.
Why? They offer great products at fair prices.
Based in Utah, the company had their first BBB file opened in 2015 and Zoominfo has the company’s founding year as 2005.
The company offers numerous products, including:
- Long-term food kits
- Breakfast
- Lunch and dinner
- Fruits and veggies
- Protein
Anything that you could want to stockpile is available through VFS.
Are Valley Food Storage’s Long-term Food Kits Any Good?
If you’re building up an emergency food supply, long-term storage is really what you want to have for your family. The storage solution you choose, even if it’s not from VFS, should be long-term.
Just use COVID-19 as an example.
I was just reading reports that people may have to wear masks for the next two years as a safety precaution.
If people have to wear masks, this means that the pandemic will last at least the next two years. Long-term storage allows you peace of mind that your food can truly be called an emergency food supply.
But, what about the company’s long-term food storage kits?
One Month Freeze Dried Food Kirt
A one month kit is going to cost slightly more than the average person spends on groceries per month, depending on the type of kit you purchase. There are two main kits:
- Premium – 50,000 calories spread out over 300 total servings
- Basic – minimum calories needed, 25,000 in total, over 150 servings
Premium comes with two bins and the basic comes with one bin. Emergency food by VFS is:
- Made in the USA
- Comes with a satisfaction guarantee
- Includes FDA certification
The company claims that they wouldn’t offer their consumers food that they wouldn’t feed their own family.
What comes in your bin?
Each bin comes with the following food items:
- 10 entrée bags containing chicken à la king, chicken teriyaki, enchilada beans & rice, fettuccine alfredo, Irish pub cheddar potato soup, Italian wild risotto, mac & cheese, mango habanero chili, pasta primavera, sweet & sour Asian rice and white bean & lime chili.
- 6 breakfast bags containing apple cream of wheat, apple oatmeal, maple & brown sugar oatmeal, multigrain cereal, strawberry cream of wheat and strawberry oatmeal.
- One protein bag containing beef dices, diced chicken and pork sausage crumbles.
- One fruit bag containing freeze dried apples, freeze dried bananas, freeze dried blueberries, freeze dried peach slices, freeze dried pineapple chunks and freeze dried strawberries.
- One vegetable bag containing freeze dried asparagus, freeze dried green beans, freeze dried peas, freeze dried potato dices, freeze dried red bell pepper dices and freeze dried sweet corn.
What stands out from Valley Food Storage compared to other brands is that the company’s food contains:
- No GMO’s
- No fillers
- No artificial ingredients
- No preservatives
You’re going to eat real food and not terrible-for-you foods that you would never eat unless forced to eat.
Every bin comes with a 25-year shelf-life.
But these aren’t the only products offered by VFS. The company also sells the following kits:
- Three-month
- Six-month
- One-year
All of the bins are the same, so you would receive three, six or twelve times the amount of food you would find in the one-month bin.
Cooking the Food
If you’ve never cooked your own freeze dried food before, you’ll need just water. As a prepper, you will not want to rely fully on your home’s electric for your food. Since you will need water and to heat the water to boiling, you’ll want to have a grill of some sort or invest in some form of outdoor cooking.
A wood burning oven is a great option, too.
Charcoal grills, propane grills and other options are available that make you less susceptible to the power grid going down.
When you’re cooking any of these meals, and most any freeze dried meal, you’ll need to:
- Add water into a pot
- Add in your food package
- Heat until boiling
- Turn to a gentle boil
- Allow to boil for 10 to 20 minutes
- Allow to cool
- Serve
If you read reviews around the web, you’ll find that the food is actually really good. You’re not eating gourmet food by any means, but you’ll be eating decent food. The food will fill your home with a wonderful aroma, and there are side dishes that can make a boring meal rather complete.
The meals change a lot, and with a decent variety, you won’t have to worry about eating the same meal every day. I personally get tired of some meals if I eat them daily, but VFS provides enough variety that you won’t easily get bored with the food that you eat.
Overall, the food is tasty, lasts a long time and will work in a pinch during a pandemic.
You don’t need to stock up with a year’s worth of food immediately – it’s expensive – but you can slowly start filling up your food stores over time. Most people recommend that you slowly build your food stores if you’re just starting out prepping.
Prepping, when you’re first starting, is going to take a lot of time and research. Don’t overwhelm yourself in the beginning with trying to buy years of food at once.
But if you do decide that you’re going to dive in and buy a year or more of food, you can be confident that you’ll have food stashed away that can be eaten for over two decades.
I will note that some of the food can do with a little extra seasoning. A lot of people will add a dash of salt or pepper to a meal because it’s a preferential taste that they want to have. I do recommend keeping a few extra spices on hand for those times when you’ll be preparing freeze dried food and want to season it a bit further.
What About Serving Size?
If you’ve ever eaten freeze dried foods in the past, you know that the serving sizes are not generous.
You may be able to eat one serving and be full, but the vast majority of people overeat.
You’ll find that the single serving size is a big issue with a lot of these packages.
If you buy the single bin, you’ll have enough food to subsist, but you will not be full and satiated. The larger packs do provide a decent amount of calories, but the caloric intake is always going to be lower than the average diet.
A lot of people will eat a serving and a half before being full.
But that’s not bad if you’ve ever tried other freeze dried packets before.
You have to remember that when you’re preparing for another pandemic or major catastrophe, you’ll want to preserve your food. You’re unlikely going to be able to eat the same amount of food that you do when times are good versus when the world is stuck in a pandemic.
I can promise you that there’s comfort in starting to stockpile your own food well before a disaster occurs. What we’re seeing in the middle of the Coronavirus is that people are emptying store shelves, and food purchases are way up.
A lot of people either don’t have enough money for the food that they want to eat or it’s difficult to find some foods. Eggs, for example, are very difficult to purchase because people are purchasing them up.
The serving sizes, while smaller, provide enough nutritious food for you to be able to get through your day without many issues.
Note: All of the food bags you’ll be purchasing from Valley Food Storage are high-end mylar to keep food as fresh as possible.
The shelf-life spans a quarter century – that’s a long-term investment on your food safety.
DIY Food Storage vs Valley Food Storage
DIY storage is great, and it’s a great option that I would never discourage people from getting into. I’m a firm believer in knowing how to do things on my own, and storing your own food is great.
But we’re in the middle of a crisis, and you need to use your money wisely.
If you want to know how to make and store all of your own food, you’ll need to:
- Take a quick class on freeze dried food 101
- Purchase a freeze dryer machine
- Purchase storage containers to keep the food fresh
There’s a somewhat significant investment involved.
And if you don’t have the budget for that, you can purchase a long-term kit. A lot of these kits provide you with food that is designed to last 25 years.
It’s an investment for your long-term food security that is going to provide you with an emergency food supply.
Bulk freeze dried food kits are one of the best investments that you can make. There are also additional freeze dried fruit and food kits offered by Valley Food Storage that you can buy to add additional items to your emergency food stores.
With real ingredients, no fillers and the company being in the United States, this is a main reason to support Valley Food Storage. If you want to start a stockpile for you and your family, this is one of the best food storage companies around.
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