Our first item: June is Rice month

Rice is receiving a lot of attention in the media at the moment.
Adelaide Now
Regardless of whether rice truly is in short supply or not it is an easy and vital food to start in your home storage.
Now there are many rice options. You can go white or brown and within the white there a number of varieties depending on taste. Nutritionally brown rice has much greater value to the body but it stores for a much shorter time.
My personal preference is white rice because of its long storage time but I will include some brown rice to increase my nutrient intake.

Storing rice
Like most storage rice should be stored in a dark,dry place that has a fairly constant temperature. If on concrete floors place on some cardboard or carpet so that the floor temperature stays even. You can store your rice open tipped into barrels with a few bay leaves to keep away bugs or in its original packaging in a box type container(again add some bay leaves for protection). I have rice stored in two places in my house.First is in barrels in the laundry cupboard and second is in its packet in the linen press. I am lucky enough to have two storage areas but that will soon change when I move to my new smaller house which will then have the barrels stored in a bedroom and the bags of rice stored in plastic roller boxes under beds. The idea is to open what bags I need to fill the barrel and then use that to eat from so I am not opening all the bags and spilling rice everywhere. I then continue to buy bags of rice so that is always in rotation.
Rotation
Rotation is vital to food storage. It is no good having something stored if it is off by the time you get to it. We eat our food storage as part of the pantry food but we just have a greater quantity and replace what we use plus some to ensure the food is always fresh. The other advantage to this is that you are used to eating it so that in an emergency you are not all of a sudden eating food you are unaccustomed to.
How much to store
This is very personal depending on a number of factors including the number of people you are storing for, your personal use of the item . By observing how much you consume on a monthly basis you can get an idea of how much you will need for 6 months/1 year/2 years. Of course you should increase that number as your consumption will probably go up if there is little else to eat.
Other points
Rice requires water to cook so you will need to think about water storage to go with it. Now don't get daunted this is just as simple as food storage and as easy as filling a clean plastic fruit juice(not milk) bottle with water from the tap adding a drop of bleach and storing with your rice.
Challenge
So your first storage challenge is to buy an extra bag of rice with each shop this month. The size you buy is entirely up to your family size and budget but even a kilo bag put away each time you shop will start your storage. You may also need to invest in a storage container eg a box on wheels or plastic barrel but if that is to much then just pick a place and start to store.

Good luck
I'll check in later with more info and to see how you are going