Last updated: April 13, 2026
I'm a Millennial Mom Who's Done Waiting for Someone Else to Save Us
No one’s rescuing us. We rescue ourselves.
Words by
Andrea Newsom
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Published on: April 13, 2026
I didn't grow up thinking about food security. I grew up thinking about which boy band poster to hang above my bed and whether I had enough minutes left on my Nokia to text my friends back. I was raised in the blissful assumption that the grocery store would always be full, the supply chain would always hum along quietly in the background, and the adults had everything under control.
Then I became “the adult”.
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Now I'm 37, I have two kids under eight, a husband who works long hours, zero grandparents nearby, and a group chat full of other moms who are all white-knuckling it through the same low-grade panic. We're the generation that was told we could have it all. What they didn't mention was that we'd have to do it all, too. Completely alone, far from the extended family support systems generations before us took for granted, and now - on top of everything else - genuinely worried about what's happening in the world.
Because things are happening in the world. Trade tensions. Disrupted shipping routes. Climate events wiping out crops. Fertilizer shortages. Grocery prices that keep climbing while my paycheck politely does not. I'm not a doomsday prepper with a bunker. I'm a mom in a city who reads a lot who finally decided that worrying without acting wasn't working for me anymore. So I started prepping. Quietly, practically, and without apologizing for it.
Why I Started Taking Food Security Seriously For My Family
It started last spring when I was at the grocery store and the shelves in the baby food aisle were noticeably sparse. My youngest was past that stage, but I stood there for a moment and thought: what would I have done? A couple of years before that, I'd watched formula disappear from shelves entirely. I watched parents panic. I felt that panic even secondhand.
The food supply is more fragile than I ever wanted to believe. Global tensions - whether that's tariffs, conflict, sanctions, monopolies, or extreme weather - don't stay abstract for long. They show up in empty shelves, spiking prices, and a sinking feeling in your stomach when you're trying to figure out how to feed your kids.
I started small. I started smart. And slowly, I built something that actually makes me feel less like I'm one bad news cycle away from losing my mind.
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What My Prep Actually Looks Like
A Rotating Pantry, Not a Hoard
I'm not stockpiling for the apocalypse. I'm building what I call a "deep pantry" - essentially a 30-to-90-day supply of things my family actually eats, rotated regularly so nothing goes to waste. The rule is simple: when I use something, I replace it. When it goes on sale, I buy two.
My deep pantry staples include:
Grains and legumes: dried rice, lentils, oats, pasta, quinoa, dried beans
Canned proteins: wild-caught tuna, salmon, chicken, chickpeas
Healthy fats: coconut oil, olive oil, shelf-stable ghee in sealed tins
Comfort and morale foods: honey, maple syrup, dark chocolate, nut butters
Baking basics: flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, sugar, yeast
Freeze-dried fruits and vegetables: for when fresh isn't available
Powdered whole milk and coconut milk: shelf-stable and incredibly versatile
I organize it all in a spare closet with clear bins and a simple labeling system.
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Water - Don't Forget This
Before food, water. We have a minimum two-week supply stored (one gallon per person, per day - don’t forget pets, too!), plus a quality gravity filter and water purification tablets. If the taps run dry or become unsafe, we're covered. This sounds extreme until you've seen what happens during a burst pipe, a boil advisory, or a hurricane. Then it sounds like the most obvious thing in the world. Remember that if the grid goes down or power goes out, the water pumps follow. If electricity does go out in your area, start filling up the bathtub, bowls, cups - anything that holds water so you have extra supply if you are to need it.
A Power Plan
We have a solar-powered generator for the refrigerator and medical devices. We have battery banks, candles, and hand-crank flashlights. We have a camping stove with extra propane and a cast iron skillet that would outlast all of us. If the grid goes down, we can still cook a warm meal.
First Aid and Medications
I keep a well-stocked first aid kit, a 90-day supply of any prescription medications we use, and over-the-counter basics: fever reducers, antihistamines, electrolyte packets, activated charcoal. I took a basic first aid refresher course last year. Make sure you know how to use everything in your kit - print out instructions for later if helpful, and keep it with your kit.
Community and Communication
Here's the prep item that gets overlooked most: knowing your neighbors. I know which families on my street have kids. I know who has a generator. I know who's elderly and might need checking on. We've swapped phone numbers. We've talked - awkwardly at first, and then genuinely - about looking out for each other. A network of real humans is infrastructure. Don't underestimate it.
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The Vitamin + Minerals Problem Nobody Talks About
Here's something that didn't occur to me until I really started thinking this through: even with a solid pantry, nutritional quality in a disrupted food scenario drops fast.
Fresh produce is the first thing to go. And the standard shelf-stable pantry - while calorie-sufficient - is not nutritionally complete. You can feed your kids rice and beans for a month and keep them full, but what happens to their immune systems, their developing brains, their energy levels? What about the vitamins and minerals they're not getting because the fresh food supply is compromised?
This is where Hiya’s kids vitamins became a non-negotiable part of my prep.
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Why Hiya Lives in My Emergency Pantry
I started giving my kids Hiya before I was thinking about any of this - I switched to them because they're the only kids' chewable that doesn't taste like a gummy pumped full of sugar. No artificial colors, no sugar, no junk fillers. Just clean, whole-food sourced vitamins and minerals formulated for kids' actual developmental needs.
But when I started building out our emergency prep, I realized: Hiya belongs in the pantry just as much as it belongs in the morning routine. Be it their multivitamins or even their powders: greens, hydration, fiber - all are shelf stable options that will help my family in the long run.
Here's why I keep a dedicated Hiya supply as part of our preparedness planning:
1. They cover the nutritional gaps that shelf-stable foods can't. Even my best-stocked pantry is going to be low on vitamins C, D, A, and K - nutrients that come primarily from fresh fruits, vegetables, and dairy. Hiya covers those bases. When our diet narrows (as it inevitably would in a disruption scenario), I know my kids will have the extra nutrients that matter most for immune health and growth.
2. The chewable format makes them prep-friendly. Hiya's formulation holds up well - supplements derived from powders (such as chewables) hold up over time much better than their common gummy vitamin counterparts. Which makes it easy to stock an extra supply without worrying it'll be useless by the time you need it. I rotate our supply the same way I rotate our pantry.
3. My kids take them without a fight. In a stressful situation, I am not going to have the bandwidth to negotiate with a seven-year-old about taking a vitamin. The fact that my kids genuinely look forward to their Hiya every morning already, means I can count on compliance later when it counts.
4. It covers what whole food can't during stress. There's real research showing that prolonged stress - like, say, a family weathering a difficult period of food insecurity or disruption - actually increases the body's need for certain micronutrients. Hiya ensures we're not running on empty nutritionally even when everything else feels uncertain.
5. It's one decision I've already made. Hiya is already part of our daily routine. Extending that to our emergency supplies isn't extra work - it's just making sure we don't run out.
6. There’s a multi-kid discount. Hiya offers 50% off your first order, however they also offer multiple kid discounts. So order for 2, 3, 4 kids at a time to build up reserves faster, and the auto-refill feature means your supply builds month over month without “one more thing” on your prep to-do list.
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What I Want Other Moms to Know About Crisis Prepping
I don't talk about this stuff very much in real life because I know how it sounds. She's gone weird. She's catastrophizing. She's one of those people. But here's what I've learned: prepping is not about fear. It's about love.
Every jar of dried lentils I put on that shelf is me saying: I will feed my children. Every bottle of Hiya’s kids multivitamins I stock is me saying: I will keep them healthy. Every conversation I have with my neighbor is me saying: We will take care of each other.
We are millennial moms. We were handed a world that's harder to navigate than the one we were promised, and we've been white-knuckling it largely without the village we deserved. But we are also resourceful, and creative, and deeply, ferociously committed to our families.
We don't wait for someone to rescue us. We build the rescue ourselves.
And one place we start is the pantry.
This post is written by a real mom who's figuring it out one shelf at a time. Your prep will look different from mine - start where you are, with what you have, and keep going. We’re in this together.