LDS & Food Storage/ Emergency kits?? —zangmo315

I have an employee that keeps talking about her church being very involved in emergency food storage & having 72 hour emergency packs-- I asked her why the church was so into this & she said it was just "being prepared in case of a disaster"... ok fine- but why is the church making sure everyone has it? I asked her if it was because we were nearing the "end" and she said no... was she just protecting her beliefs (I was unaware the LDS were into end time prophecy-- are they are are they not??) or is it just a "community service" thing they are into?
She's been talking about it a lot the last few weeks- so I would like to know. She's usually very open about discussing her religion w/ me, but this just seems odd to me.

When originally founded the LDS church was very much a Millennialist group like others of its time. The third prophet after Joseph Smith was Wilford Woodruff, whose writings are filled with visions of the end times and blessings to others that they would see the return of Christ. Of course much of that has died down now since Jesus remains a no show, unless he really was the guy who kidnapped Elizabeth Smart?

But I don't think you're far off in your supposition, zangmo. I think Mormons generally justify their food storage in practical terms, but see it as a protection for the days leading up to the Second Coming. You can see the shift toward practicality in many of the other answers to this question:

"They came in handy ..." "It's smart to have food in case there is no food ..." "It's just a smart thing to do." "Its about being self reliant" "It's about being prepared for disaster, job loss, etc." "It's good general advice."

Look, I'm a financial planner. In all my college work, all may CFP® courses, and all my years in the industry I've never heard the subject of food storage brought up. It may be harmless—except in terms of time, money, and storage space—but in almost every emergency what a family needs is money, not rolled oats. I would venture that for every faith-promoting story of food storage saving the day, dozens more have had theirs go to waste. And even for those who had to use it, they'd have been better off putting that savings in an interest-earning account. This food storage thing has been very expensive advice for the general membership.