FOD-02: Food Inventory Management
A pantry that stays useful only works if you know what’s on the shelf, where it is, and when it needs to be eaten.
Course Overview, One Page
A single printable page covering what FOD-02 teaches, the 7 lessons, what you need before starting, and the doctrinal sources behind the method. Useful for deciding whether the course is for you, or for handing to somebody in your group who is weighing it up.
Why This Course
By the end of this course, you’ll be able to:
- Define the four categories a real inventory system has to track, and what “minimally viable” means.
- Size a stockpile with daily calorie baselines by household member and the formula that turns them into pounds of a specific food.
- Read best-by versus use-by labels correctly and set a realistic rotation window per category.
- Build a FIFO shelf layout, labeled and dated, so rotating stock correctly is the easiest choice every time.
- Choose a spreadsheet tracker, a physical card system, or both, with the field list any tracker needs.
- Run a periodic audit, triage what you find, and feed waste data back into acquisition.
Lessons 01–07
The silent failure mode of an unmanaged pantry, and what a minimally viable system looks like.
Calories, servings, and household composition — sizing what you store to who’s actually eating.
Reading best-by versus use-by labels correctly and setting rotation windows that actually work.
First In, First Out shelf layout, labeling and dating, and the mistakes that break it.
Spreadsheet or card system — choosing, or combining, the method that actually gets maintained.
Running a periodic audit, triaging what you find, and feeding waste data back into acquisition.
Set up your tracker, calculate your household’s daily requirement, and set your first rotation schedule.
How This Course Works
| Sequence | Work through lessons in order. Each lesson unlocks the next once its knowledge checks are answered correctly |
| Prerequisites | A food storage program you’ve already started. The course assumes food is already being purchased (FOD-01, FOD-03, FOD-04) |
| Companion guide | Worksheets for your category inventory, quantity calculations, rotation schedule, and audit log, referenced starting in Lesson 1 |
| Capstone | Build your own working inventory tracker and rotation schedule using the companion guide worksheets |
| Certificate | Unlocks on the Course Map once all seven lessons are complete |
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