I met a prep­per about a month or so ago, and we were dis­cussing our preps, what we thought we would need based on fam­i­ly, sit­u­a­tion, etc.  He men­tioned to me that he pur­chas­es com­fort foods that he would nor­mal­ly pick up at the gro­cery store.  Com­fort Foods?  Like can­dy, soda, beer, etc.?  Yup, that is exact­ly what he does.  In addi­tion to his stan­dard preps, he picks up, shrink wraps or store with O2 absorbers com­fort foods that he might nor­mal­ly snack on on a week­end or any oth­er time.  His phi­los­o­phy is, such that if the SHTF, and you are shel­tered in for a long peri­od of time, would­n’t it be nice to pop open a beer or have a Her­shey bar every now and then… Hmmm…

How do you know I am new at this?  I nev­er even con­sid­ered com­fort foods.  They can do two things, when I put some thought into it.  First, they can sat­is­fy you psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly and keep your mind at ease in when you are always in a state of height­ened aware­ness.  Two, they can also be used as barter items if need be because tech­ni­cal­ly they are “non-essen­tials” for life.

Just some food for thought…