Jim,
In addition to stores of long-term food in #10 cans (Mountain House and cans from the LDS cannery), I keep about a six month supply of “grocery store” canned and boxed food and a multiple-year supply of
OTC medicines. A lot of this stuff goes unused because I’m pretty bad at rotating and while they are items we like, we just don’t eat them that often.
Every year around the holidays I box up a ton of stuff and donate it to the food bank. The tax deduction I take is the “fair market value” (i.e., current grocery store price) of the goods donated. Inasmuch as
I typically pay less than half of retail by using coupons and catching sales – and every year have thousands of dollars in consulting income that I pay 40% tax on, this results in my short-to-medium-term food
supply being close to free.
I’ve never been audited and in any case there is nothing wrong with this, but ’tis best to itemize the list of goods donated, take pictures and get a receipt from the food bank.
This approach provides charity, tax savings and food storage all at the same time! – Matt R.