Pilgrims didn’t just practice food storage; they lived it. We should do the same.

This Thanksgiving, as we celebrate with the traditional family meal, perhaps it would be well to remember what the pilgrims had to do to feed themselves and how the hardships and the scarcity they faced are seldom seen in our day.

The contrast between our day and theirs couldn’t be starker.

In 2014, we enjoy a variety and abundance of food that would have made the pilgrims envious. In 1621, they could eat only what they could raise. We have no such problem. We can find anything we can imagine, and more, on grocery store shelves.

They lived from harvest to harvest. If a harvest failed, they had only hunger and scarcity to look forward to. Again, we have no such concerns. Modern agricultural practices and advanced manufacturing and storage techniques have made food shortages a thing of the past. Macey’s provides you with an amazing abundance and variety of the very best food any time of the year.

The pilgrims’ diet varied seasonally: primarily vegetables in the spring and summer, fruit in the fall and meat or preserved foods in the winter. We know no such limits. Thanks to a vast food distribution network and advanced methods of packing and warehousing, we can enjoy any food we wish at almost any time of the year.

But there is one lesson from our pilgrim ancestors we have mostly overlooked. It is the vital role of food storage, even in modern times. Of necessity, they had to learn to store food in order to avoid starvation. It’s a lesson that has been largely forgotten in our day. We have enjoyed such an incredible abundance and variety for so long that we have forgotten the lessons the pilgrims knew so well: food storage is life insurance. With it, you survive; without it, you perish.

Macey’s and Augason Farms have not overlooked this vital lesson from history: food storage for emergencies is a must. The pilgrims didn’t just practice food storage; they lived it. We should do the same.

Like everything else in this modern day and age, food storage has made giant leaps forward. Where the pilgrims had only one or two tried-and-true techniques for storing food long term, we have many. We have not only greatly improved on those time-honored techniques, we have invented many new ones. These improvements provide greatly extended shelf life, as well as improved taste and nutrition for almost any food.

So this Thanksgiving season, investigate what Macey’s and Augason Farms have to offer for your family’s security in times of need.

Emergency preparedness is not an option. It’s life insurance.