I'll first say that I'm LDS (Mormon) and for us, self-reliance and food storage is something of a commandment.
Obviously not all Mormons live up to all of their rules (real or perceived) just like any other religious body, so I'm guessing that if you polled 10 Mormons on the street 4 of them might be able to talk with any credibility on the subject. I'm not bagging on my fellowmen here, I'm just adding this caveat so that when I tell you that for some of my suggestions you'll need to find yourself a Mormon, you are careful in your selection of those you seek out for any assistance with LDS resources.
With that said...
The LDS church has a LOT of resources available to it and its membership regarding food storage. Probably the single best resource, in my opinion, is the "cannery" (that's what we call it) but it is more formally known as the Home Storage Center. There are literally hundreds of them located all over the world. You can find the one closest to you here:
http://www.providentliving.org/conte...4066-1,00.html
Before I go into what is found at the cannery, here's the catch: in order to avail yourself of the cannery you must go with a member of the church. Because this isn't a "for-profit" organization and taxes aren't paid it or the workers (it's all volunteer) it cannot be opened to the public. So, if you know a member of the church, ask them about the cannery and when their "ward" time is to go. Each ward generally has a pre-appointed time to go to the cannery every month or so. You can tag along. If you don't know anyone in the area who is Mormon and you are a little more daring, you can look up the local church and call and ask for the ward food storage specialist. Every ward has one. Ask for their name and number. Call that person and tell them you'd like to go and volunteer to help on their next canning day and they'll be happy to have you. Generally you have to put your bulk order in a few months in advance, but you can order off the shelf products or bring your own products to can (I'll explain that in a minute). You'll have at least 20-30 people there helping you on a Saturday morning and together everyone cans tons (literally) of food for each other and you are done in a few hours. It's fun actually. Very little religious overtones - just an opening prayer. The rest is getting down to business. I can't promise you that no one will try and invite you to church, but if you are clear that your purpose there is to be a friend and a compatriot in self-reliance and that's it and you are helpful and pleasant - they'll get the hint and move on. That won't stop them from being really nice to you though. The ward food storage (or self-reliance) specialist is the key to your entrance. I called my ward's self-reliance specialist here and asked her if a non-Mormon wanted to come with us and can if that was cool and she said yes, it happens regularly. She said they just get their order to her, get their map to the cannery and they're good to go. I go and can regularly and I've never noticed anyone getting the missionary special (and I rarely recognize more than a handful of people anyway), I've been too busy canning to care. If someone is in the Tucson or Phoenix areas and is interested, PM me and I can hook you up with people.
As far as what you can get/can at the dry-pack canneries:
flour
rice (long-grain - we bring our own short grain rice since my husband is very picky about his rice)
spaghetti
sugar
dried apple slices
red wheat
white wheat
quick oats
rolled oats
powdered milk (great to use all the time for cooking)
potato buds (a staple in our house - they're YUMMY)
chocolate pudding
vanilla pudding (the puddings are good for cooking cakes and whatnot)
dried carrots
black beans
navy beans
dried onions
refried beans
(I'm doing this from memory, but I think that's it for your normal dry-pack canneries). This is all generally canned in 10# cans. I know some do mylar bags, but those break open or puncture easily so if you move at all, I wouldn't suggest it.
Some of the canneries (like the one in Phoenix) also do wet-packing. They do meats, jams/jellies, peanut butter, etc. I've never been to a wet-pack cannery, but if you've got one in your area that's great. I don't have a price list with me, but I'll grab one on Sunday. I do know the bulk prices beat the commissary and Sam's Club/Costco on normal days. That isn't to say you can't beat the cannery - but when you add the type of cans (10#), you've got a good thing going and it generally blows it away. The closest cannery in North Carolina is in Greensboro.
However, I do the majority of my day-to-day (what's in my pantry) food storage shopping at the commissary and Costco. Case lot sales are my best friend. I'm a huge proponent of store what you eat. We probably have about a four month supply between our pantry, closets and deep freeze. I've got three young kids who just aren't going to eat wheat happily. I'm not going to cook wheat happily. I have some wheat for real true nasty awful emergencies, but I don't bake my bread. I buy 4-5 loaves at a time and freeze them. I'll post an article below this post that I live by that explains the biggest mistakes in food storage. Being an active duty family I just don't think it is reasonable to think we can store more than 4 months of food without killing our weight allowance and ourselves on any given move - not to mention the fact that we regularly have issues with storage (and that has nothing to do with my obsession with dishes)
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There are a couple of web sites that I like for bulk items that do have good prices - at least to compare prices with the canneries, etc are:
www.honeyvillegrain.com
www.beprepared.com (have great first aid kits, 72 hour kits and will do group orders and save you on shipping)
www.waltonfeed.com
Couple of other things:
Meds: I've tried to read the whole thread and I may have missed this - if it's been said already, it merits being said again. You need to keep an extra month of medicine on-hand. My son has an endocrine issue that requires daily injections of a drug that gets mail ordered to us in a refrigerated container on a monthly basis. I've been slowly hoarding it over the past few years (they won't hand me an extra supply happily) and now I'm about a month ahead of where they think we are... During Hurricane Katrina there were HUGE problems getting the meds to patients in the affected areas and so other parents on my support group board were driving their extra medicine all over the country - it was awful. Anyway, I'm paranoid now.
Finances: Food storage is a really really good idea during lean times too. We've lived out of our food storage in the past when we just haven't had a good cash flow. It isn't just for catastrophic times. I regularly see the commissary promote buying a little extra to keep in the pantry and I think this is beyond wise and we should educate some of the younger/newers out there that they ought to be a month ahead with what is in the cupboard. The finance office doesn't always come through when they need to and it's good to have some extra mac and cheese hanging around. I also LOVE going through a month where I cook out of my food storage and my freezer and only to the commissary for fruit/veggies. A couple of months ago my total grocery bill for the month was $50. I obviously can't do that every month because I have to stock back up again, and this past month I had a
much bigger bill - but it's great when you need to use the money for something else and you need to rotate your food.
MRE's: This is more a question... I saw mention of a bulk order you all did awhile ago. Was this cheaper than the MRE's that you can buy in the commissary? We like having MRE's around as 72 hour kit and camping food and I keep a few in the cars, but DANG they're pricey. My husband flat refuses to bring any home from work. I'm not going to push his ethics on this one, but... can't I find them cheaper somewhere besides the commissary?
Beef: I've had a few family members who have done this - we've never been anywhere quite long enough to do it but I really want to... I think going in with a few friends a splitting a cow is a great idea. I'm not sure the particulars or how you go about finding said cow, but I know they get a ton of beef out of a 1/4 cow and it lasts over a year for a family of five with lots of good beef and ends up being economical (or so I've heard). Clearly if electricity were cut, the freezer would be trouble but I guess the BBQ would have to be fired up right quick. I do know people who can beef in their homes but that is way out of my league.
Hopefully this wasn't too rambling. If I haven't been clear, please let me know. If anyone wants prices, let me know and I'll either post them or PM them to you. I've also got spreadsheets for inventory and food storage plans for building a 3 month supply one week at a time over the course of a year. The last thing you need to do is go into debt to get prepared - that would really defeat things.
I'll post the article below in it's entirety. I think it is worth the read.