Prepared FOR THE WORST

John and Susan Leavitt’s Pine Creek home is lovely, the living room graced with a piano and stunning sculptures created by her father.

But the real interesting stuff is down the stairs past the family room, in a cramped storage area where the furnace sits amid Christmas boxes and all the other flotsam that families collect.

“There’s the dreaded dehydrated milk,” John Leavitt says, pointing to the steel shelves.

It shares space with the other items in an extensive emergency stash: buckets of wheat, rice, beans, oats, canned vegetables and fruit, powdered fruit drinks, razors, zip-lock bags, shampoo, candles, toilet paper.

They don’t do most of the shopping for this stockpile at a regular grocery store. Look closely at the food on the shelves, and you’ll see labels denoting the Deseretbrand, with a drawing of a beehive.

It’s a reference to Utah, known as the Beehive State because of the industriousness of the early pioneers. Not coincidentally, Utah is also the headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which asks its members to store a year’s worth of provisions in case of disaster, economic downturn or even a blizzard.

To help members fulfill the mission, as well as help needy congregants, the church operates volunteerrun canneries and packing plants around the country to provide emergency rations and stock LDS food banks year-round. Two canneries are in Colorado: one in southeast Colorado Springs, where dry foods can be processed, and another in Aurora, where “wet” items — vegetables, fruits and the like — are canned.

The Leavitts spent a morning recently at the one in southeast Colorado Springs. It’s a place where machines are whirring and clanking, and volunteers in hairnets are filling cans with beans, rice, cocoa powder and other dry commodities.

Like other church members, the Leavitts were taught how to run the canning equipment so they can do it themselves.

It is all part of the church’s unique, private worldwide welfare system, which provides help for congregants who are financially ailing or victims of disaster, and sells bulk items for canning to church members who want to increase their home emergency storage. The LDS church also provides food to nonmembers during regional emergencies.

When the Leavitts bought bulk oats and canned them for their their own emergency stash, they also donated some for the Bishop’s Storehouse, which is next to the cannery and provides free food for needy LDS members.

The grocery shelves and freezers in the Bishop’s Storehouse are laden with hundreds of food items, including such staples as butter, hot dogs, peanut butter, bread and many canned goods.

“It’s a blessing,” says Rachael Porter, who was there on a recent day pushing a shopping cart filled with peanut butter, broccoli, flour, canned fruits, carrots and other necessities.

Porter says she is here because her husband was hospitalized, and they’re facing huge medical bills.

“If it wasn’t for this, we’d be using food money to pay them,” says Porter, who has three children. “This way our children don’t go hungry.”

People can’t just walk in and help themselves. The process starts at the congregational level, where members meet with their bishops, who assess their needs before approving the temporary assistance. They then take the list to the store, where volunteers help them fill the order.

“This isn’t gourmet food, but it keeps people healthy,” says volunteer Jerry Pace, who oversees the center.

The food bank gets some of the fresh and perishable groceries locally, at wholesale prices, purchased with donations from members who tithe and also fast one Sunday a month and contribute the savings.

But most of the food comes from the vast agricultural resources of the church: cattle ranches, dairy and wheat farms, and orchards scattered across the country. Once harvested, the food is distributed to more than 331 storehouses, home storage centers and production centers. There, volunteers — many of them serving two-year work missions for the church — make sure the items are processed and canned.

The welfare program is part of their faith, honed by the church’s beginnings in the 1800s, says John Leavitt. In those early years, the Mormons suffered persecution, and families had to move frequently.

“There had to be frugality and a mindset to provide for ourselves and not have others, including the government, care for us,” Leavitt explains.

But it doesn’t mean they don’t share.

In recent years, the church has provided food and supplies to people affected by more than 150 emergencies worldwide, including last month’s California fires.

Some of the food comes from the warehouses, but in times of local emergencies and disaster, church members bring their stored items to the centers, where the food can be shared with anyone in need.

“It’s a good way to be a good steward of what we have been given,” Leavitt says. “Having enough is a blessing, and the best way to show thanks is to share it.”

GOODS TO STOCKPILE

To help its members figure out how much food and other items they need for a year’s worth of emergency supplies, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints operates a Web site, providentliving.org, with tips and tables. For John and Susan Leavitt and their six kids, the recommended amounts include:

1,200 pounds of wheat

122 pounds of flour

335 pounds of cornmeal

305 pounds of rolled oats

265 pounds of macaroni

360 pounds of dry meats

320 pounds of sugar

112 pounds of dry milk

PLUS

The Leavitts have a 72-hour emergency kit they can grab and take with them, and a 50-gallon container of water in the backyard.