5 Food Security Measures to Ensure In Your Homes

                                          5 Food Security Measures to Ensure In Your Homes

Food security is a critical global issue that needs to be addressed, with 1 out of 9 people suffering from hunger. Food security according to the World Health Organization (WHO), is defined as ‘when all people have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life’. We live in a time of economic instability and uncertain climate. Accessing nutritious food, is important now than ever.

The foundation of food security starts at home but it is now a major challenge for households worldwide. Ensuring your family’s access to nutritious food is crucial for stability and sustainability. This will protect your household from food shortages and increase your resilience.

This article will discuss 5 ways to can protect your home, each offering a practical guide on how to empower your household against food insecurity.

1. Proper Meal Planning

Meal planning is a very essential tool that helps protect your home from food insecurity. It ensures food availability, reduce unnecessary food wastage and promotes healthy living. A proper guide to carry out this plan is;

• Assessment of each family member’s dietary needs- it is important to put this into consideration while planning.
• Creation of a weekly food plan- meals for an entire week should be planned
• Making a food item or grocery list- this itemizes everything you need for meal preparation.
• Shopping for food items- purchase of listed items should been done, also, remember to check the expiry date of good products you purchase if you’re going to be buying in bulk or storing for a long time.

2. Proper Food storage

This is another important means to ensuring food security in your home. Food storage will help prevent spoilage and contamination of food items, prevent wastage and increase the shelf life of food. Some tips to ensure proper food storage are;

• Dry storage for grains- clean and air tight containers should be used to store grain products such as beans and rice to help prevent contamination and spoilage.
• Refrigeration of perishable products at 40°F(4°C)
• Proper labelling of containers or bags used for storage for proper identification.
• Non-perishable goods such as canned foods should be stored well too.

3. Growing your own food

Cultivating your own food in your backyard or that unused land can help boost food security. It helps to increase food availability, reduce cost of external food supply, as a food source during emergencies. If you want to start cultivating your own food;

• Prepare an organic fertilizer rich soil
• Start will small crops to grow
• Plant the seeds, water them regularly to ensure efficient growth
• When it’s harvest time, harvest carefully to avoid wastage and properly store the excess product harvested.

4. Pest Control

Pests are organisms that destroy plant and crops. This can cause food insecurity in a home. Effective pest control helps protect your crops or food items against damage, reduce food wastage and contamination. Reduce pest infestation by;

• Proper food storage
• Ensuring the kitchen and storage area is clean always.
• Use of pest repellants plants.

5. Emergency food supply

During financial or economic crises, emergency food supply will protect your household against food insecurity.  Stock non-perishable food items such as canned goods in bulk. Examples of food items that should be classified as emergency food supply are canned meat, vegetables, grains, water.

In conclusion, each home has to be protected against food insecurity by all means. Therefore, proper meal planning, food storage, encouraging gardening, pest control and emergency food supply will help empower a household against food insecurity. All these should be known and implemented to promote food security in a home!

Also Read : How To Promote Food Security Through Security In Nigeria

About Author

Deborah Taiwo

A Veterinary medical Doctor with a strong foundation in animal health care and profound passion for writing, she writes on various niche such as healthcare, finance, business, pet care. She enjoys reading, writing and staying up-to-date with current trends.

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