I admit I haven't tackled long term food storage yet, so I'm paying attention to the replies more than weighing in on as I'm not an expert on the subject. I'm still at the point where I keep a basic supply of non perishables in hand and rotate them out. I have heard a few people tossing hand warmers into sealed containers with beans, rice or other grains to scavenge the oxygen but not sure how effective it is. I'd love to see an open discussion on this topic.

In Calgary the LDS Home Storage Centre is the best place to start your food storage. The address is 7040 Farrell Rd SE
Calgary, AB T2H 0T2

Order form can be found here https://providentliving.lds.org/self-reliance/food-storage/home-storage-center-order-form?lang=eng

In Alberta there are also locations in Lethbridge and Sherwood Park

Another source is Briden Solutions in Calgary - opposite Calaway Park

Well guys...im a rebel, not likely telling you what others will. I don't repackage anything, No biaxially orientated polyethylene terephthalate polyester film touching my food, but with that said I am not storing food for 25 years. AS you can see these were from 2013, I write the year on the package when I buy something with a paint pen. otherwise I will forget. My experience is no loss of quality or taste that I have found out to roughly 8-10 years with such products(beens Macaroni), I haven't gone longer so cant say if there would be a problem on a longer time horizon, I suspect not, though, maybe the packaging might start tearing or breaking down, but if kept in a cool dark place as I do, I suspect not.
I have found Food for less to be good value for the money ( I don't buy at the regular price but when the item I am looking to stock up on is for sale I load up then. Bulk barn is another good place, though not on everything, pearl barley for stews is dirt cheap, dehydrated potatoes when on sale is good, dehydrated sliced bananas is hit or miss often costs 10 cents more per hundred grams than Walmarts.
And the biggest rip off is on powdered milk 24.00 for 2.5kg at Food for less, 33.00 at bulk barn for 2.5kg....and from suppliers on this board I wont name names 40++ for the same 2.5kg amount...this is still fresh in my mind cause I just priced it and bought 15kg (6 bags) from Food for less. My advice don't worry, be happy, buy on sale, rotate your food so your not holding past 10 years, and all is well. I live well out in the country, and don't like running out of something, or having to pay high prices that's why I stock up.

Costco used to sell powdered milk, I think it was 9-10 month ago they stopped... the price was even better than Food for less, from memory it would have been roughly 20.00 for 2.5kgs. I complain each time I go in, and last time I did, I was told there had been lots of people complaining and they were looking at bringing it back.....So if they do I will be back to buying it at Costco...

Interesting. This is a place non Mormons can go to? Sort of surprised about that. I followed the link to review and all the order forms are blank and didn't contain pricing or info. Am I simply blind?

Still interested in thoughts on the store bought self build as I originally stated as money can be tight and some weeks I maybe able to add a little and other weeks more and fill buckets at a more manageable pace for my wallet.

Wow honestly I was hoping for 5 or so, but 10 would be outstanding in my mind. My hope is to maybe fill a few buckets or even a rubber maid container a year and then after 2 or 3 years cycle through them on an ongoing basis. Going through college we survived on the cheap no name Mac and cheese, so I figured if we got through college having to sustain ourselves on it then, if a natural disaster happens we can eat that for a few months of dinners.

Thanks for the tip Peppercorn. If I was to store in my garage I am more worried about freezing rather than getting to warm and the effects of issues that would cause.

I just looked at that LDS pricing....I just picked 2 quick things(cant do them all) Black beans and flour.
Black beans from LDS 8.50 per 5.5 pounds, from food for less 5.50 for 1.8kg package ( the conversion is 292.9 grams for 1.00 vs 327.27 grams for 1.00) or you get 11% more black beans from food for less!
White Flour from LDS 4 pounds for 4.25..vs make sure you are sitting down....22 pounds (10kg) for 6.49 dollars from Costco. That price has been the same for years at Costco, I know because that's where I have been buying it. So 1.06 per pound from LDS, or .30 cents per pound from Costco. You can save huge by knowing where to shop, in the case of flour 350% savings. I actually have to go to Costco next week and will be stocking up on Flour, I will hit Food forless as well and confirm that pricing.

We keep our supplies in totes on the shelves of our pantry. We use a variety of totes, being shoe box size, the next size up from that and other totes for larger stuff like bags of flour and sugar. We throw a few bay leaves into each tote too. We write when bought and rotate the stock. For beans lentils, barley, etc., we use canning jars and seal them with our food saver.

If I was to store in my garage I am more worried about freezing rather than getting to warm and the effects of issues that would cause.

Storing food products through freeze thaw cycles (as in a garage), even dry goods is a no go for me, just asking for trouble with condensation, maybe not at first but over time. If your going to do something like that then that's a case for repackaging in mylar bags, o2 absorbers....but that then increases your costs.
You can also check stock, on line at the Bulk Barn, they don't list the prices as theirs bounce around, but you can select your products, then call the store and they are happy to give the pricing on each item, though its really best to go in the store now and then to check pricing as they often have really good in store specials that you wouldn't know about unless you walk in.
Also when your in a store like Food for less where they have the bulk bin section, don't assume that's the best price I have sometimes found the same item that's in the bulk section, cheaper sold prepackaged in another isle.

While I’m sure there are merits to leaving certain products in their original packaging, I am a firm believer in vacuum sealing in Mylar bags (or mason jars) with oxygen absorbers and placing these in tightly sealed 5 gallon buckets (no need to place mason jars in buckets) and placing these in a cool dark dry place (with relatively low fluctuations in temperatures). It not only extends the shelf life of the product but also protects against potential problems like bugs/varmints and water damage. Also if you pack your buckets properly - in the face of an emergency where you need to leave in a hurry you can just grab a bucket or two and load these in your vehicle fairly quickly. It is true this method does take more work and adds an additional cost but to me it’s an investment. With the way the price of food is going up these days I am assured of the maximum shelf life possible at today's prices and this is by no means a waste of time or money. Just my 2 cents..

I have picked up a number of different size mylar bags and O2 absorbers from the LDS location in Sherwood Park. They don't require that you buy other goods from them and in exchange for buying from them they give you a Book of Mormon, with no expectation of converting anyone. They were great on advice for food storage and also have #10 canning equipment available for a different kind of storage. Some commercial packaging might be ok as is, but a lot of the cellophane packaging (I'm thinking of dried noodle products like ichiban or anything in similar containers) is very fragile and doesn't stand up well without becoming brittle. I do pick up large bags of rice and put them straight into pails with gamma lids and 02 absorbers. If there are bugs in the bagged rice, there would be bugs in the contents anyway so in goes the product, the absorber and the lid goes back on. Leaving rice or dried beans, soups in the original packaging means that I can put different products all in the same pails.

Thanks for the tips all. Sounds like I will kind of decide to try a couple different things and look at some stuff for longer term storage and leave some stuff as is for shorter term storage. My plan of leaving stuff in the garage and shed seems to be thwarted. Dang it.

Now on the subject of sugar, salt, and flour......leave in bags and into the pails with gamma lids or just directly dump them into the pails and lose the bags?

Honestly the sugar, salts, flour are all much Further down the road as funds needs time to catch up to my wish list. Maybe one day I will buy a 6-49 ticket and win. Then I can buy a krap load of mountain house foods. :ugeek:

I don't know about anyone else, but for sugar, I dump it into a pesticide free recycling bag and into a bucket it goes. I don't store it long term though, as we use about 2 pails per year, so I just keep them topped up. We may cut that down a bit if we get into bees next year.
We don't store a lot of salt, just for canning and pickling. We put it into mason jars. I would however like to try my hand at salting meat, so I figure the same method as the sugar should do it.
As for flour, same idea...pesticide free bags and rotate durring use.

I got in a shopping trip to the big city, so I could confirm those prices I gave. The flour was like I said 6.49 for 10kg..and since I was at Costco anyway I thought I would check out their rice as that's a common staple that people store.
it was 13.99 for 8kg (Kirkland brand), LDS was 5.50 for 5.4 pounds or with the conversions Costco 1.00 dollar gets you 571.8 grams of rice, LDS 1.00 dollar gets you 445.3 grams, and Bulk barn 1.00 gets you 400 grams (though they have good sales on it sometimes)

Costco wins on this by at least 23%
I was in a hurry at Food for less so I forgot to check the rice price I just quickly looked at the beans, and I was wrong Black beans 1.8kg package was 4.48 dollars (I had said 5.50). They were having a sale 😀 having a sale on a lot of different beans

Morningcoffee is right about the asian type noodles/packaging and things like whats in the picture below. Don't store those for long periods even repackaged, 2 to 3 years is all I find that they keep for before the taste starts going "off" for me

I use 6gal buckets with Mylar bags and oxygen eaters. Depending on the item-they can last 10-15 years easily.
I find superstore, Costco and Walmart great options for flour, different kinds of beans, pasta, oatmeal and rice. Canned goods are fairly well priced in Superstore. Look for deals!!! Place your flour in the freezer for 48 hour or so prior to putting into buckets(tends to kill off any bugs/eggs. I use to use strictly gamma lids for all my buckets and then came to my senses $$$! Now I use regular white food grade bucket lids (1.99) and then once I open a bucket-then I will put a gamma lid on. That way you'll only need a total of 4/6 gamma lids. I do keep some powdered milk but I now rely on my goats for milk,cheese. I dehydrate my own fruits but concentrate on freeze dried fruits I'm not able to grow here. I even have powdered eggs, but that was from a while ago-now I have chickens and ducks. Keep your buckets in a cool dry area!

Years ago LDS had great deals in both bulk and canning. I heard they have had a lot of restrictions placed on them by the government so their product has decreased more than half what they had before and 3/4 of their canning facilities were closed (calgary no longer does canning -Too bad!)