Hey there, social media fans! We’ve given you chances to win free THRIVE products from our THRIVE Live broadcasts—now how about something a little bigger? That’s right, we’re giving away a Harvest 72” Food Rotation System to one of our lucky social media followers!

Six feet tall, three feet wide, and two feet deep, food storage has met its match in our largest and most popular freestanding Food Rotation System. The simple but genius front-loading rotation technology of the Harvest allows it to hold up to 460 cans and ensures that the first cans you store are the first ones you use, reducing spoilage and waste. And like all FRS units, it’s customizable, allowing you to decide what size you want each of the can tracks to be.  With the Harvest, gone are the days of having to pull all the cans off the shelf to find the one hiding at the back—you can see at a glance what foods you have and how many cans you have of them, making for both easy everyday access and organized long-term storage.

To be entered into the drawing for the Harvest FRS, just follow these three steps:

1. Like our Facebook page or follow us on Twitter (@ShelfReliance)
2. Subscribe to our newsletter (at the top of our home page)
3. Put a link to our blog on your Facebook page or your own blog

Once you’ve done all three things, leave a comment below telling us what media you use most to see what’s going on at Shelf Reliance, and we’ll enter you in the drawing. This contest ends May 31st, so get your social media on for a chance to win!

Shelf Reliance consultants from all over North America (and even a few from Japan!) showed up in full force at the Salt Palace on April 12th to 14th for the second annual Shelf Reliance convention. The theme for this year’s convention was GO: Realize Your Thriving Life, and for the three days of the convention Shelf Reliance consultants, employees, and executives all thrived together as we learned about new products and tools at general sessions, listened to tried and true tips at workshops by consultants, and met and networked with new people.

If you weren’t at convention, or if you still haven’t had enough, here’s an overview of what happened:

Thursday

Thursday started convention off with tours of our new headquarters in American Fork, and then registration and a casual opening reception. The executive team also met with the advisory board.

Friday

The opening session of convention began with a very special performance by the Backorder Boys, made up of our very own executive team! After a great song about Shelf Reliance, some amazing choreography, and even a little rap, Jason Norton welcomed everyone to convention and he, Steve Palmer, and Jason Budge spoke about this year’s theme and how we can GO realize our thriving lives. Steve and Jason then hosted the first-ever THRIVE vs. Grocery Store Iron Chef competition. Our very own Chef Todd went head to head with Chef Troy from the acclaimed Chef’s Table restaurant in Orem to see who could make the best stroganoff in 25 minutes.

While the two chefs cooked away furiously onstage, Steve introduced our newest THRIVE products:  reformulated Whole Egg Powder that now has even fewer ingredients, Egg White Powder that will make cooking with egg whites even easier, Scrambled Eggs mix especially for cooking up eggs on their own, 10 Grain Pancake Mix for heartier breakfasts, and reformulated Instant Milk that received better scores than fresh milk in a university lab test.

Jason Norton also announced another exciting new THRIVE product: The THRIVE Smart Start pack. This package was designed to help people understand and use the Q and the THRIVE products they receive on it. The Smart Start Pack includes three monthly Q shipments with all the products preselected for you and recipes developed especially for each month of supplies. The Q Smart Start pack will help people learn how to cook with THRIVE every day, and offers a variety of 52 different THRIVE products from every category so that they can decide which products they want to put in their Q.

Next Jason unveiled some other great tools for consultants. First, he announced the launch of a new redesigned Back Office site, shelfreliance.com/myoffice.  This site will make it even easier for consultants to manage their Shelf Reliance businesses. One of the biggest features of the new site is the dashboard, which lets you see how your business is doing at a glance with simple graphs and reports on sales, commissions, and Qs. My Office also uses intuitive menus to organize links into logical categories, streamlining the business process further. My Office will be available starting April 21^st, but the old Back Office will still be available for another 90 days to ease the transition between the two sites.

Jason also revealed a new option for consultant websites. This new site has a landing page with four categories so potential customers can decide whether to buy emergency products, learn about and purchase THRIVE foods, host a party, or become a consultant. Easy menus on the side of the page will help people navigate, and videos for each of the categories provide more information. This consultant website option also has an attached blog page, making it easy for customers to keep up with their consultant’s blog.

Finally Jason announced the ASAP bonus. This bonus (Additional Sponsor Advanced Pay) allows anyone who enrolls a consultant to receive their $50 dollar bonus by the next week, allowing them to receive their rewards, well, ASAP!

After the main session, consultants got a chance to sample new THRIVE products and browse through the convention store. The Store offered all the new products that had just been announced, as well as logo merchandise like shirts, hats, and blender bottles (which were modeled by employees in the fashion show at the end of the main session).

Friday afternoon another general session started off with a Q&A session with a panel of THRIVE experts. Food scientist Ian Ishii, Chef Todd, and Adam Womble, an employee in research and development, answered questions about THRIVE submitted by consultants. After that, Chef Todd gave a cooking demonstration, showing us how to make four delicious THRIVE recipes. Live music for the session was provided by Director of Sales Scott Dalton and his wife, Mami.

Friday night was Recognition Night, which included dinner and several musical numbers by professional singers. Consultants were recognized by rank, came onstage to shake hands with the executive team, and received pins and certificates for rank advancements.

Saturday

Saturday started with workshops, and a general session was held that afternoon. Lindsay Budge and Amy Palmer spoke about Thriving Nations and some of the projects it is currently funding, and introduced a video about the trip Jason Norton, Steve Palmer, and Jason Budge took to Ecuador last year to participate in some of the Thriving Nations programs that are underway there. Then keynote speaker Kris Belcher spoke to us about overcoming challenges. Though her challenges came in the form of cancer, multiple surgeries, and eventually blindness, Kris taught us how to persevere in the face of all types of adversity.

Convention ended Saturday night with a closing party. The Shelf Reliance’s Got Talent show included 11 performances by contestants, interspersed with commentary by some very interesting judges. There was also live music provided by the Utah Jazz quintet, including Scott and Mami Dalton and their 12-year-old daughter Erika. Performances varied from singing and dancing to accordion, comedy, and even synchronized swimming. The judges chose the finalists, and then the audience awarded first place to Janette Franson (singing a Shelf Reliance version of Reflection), second place to Patty Dickerson (comedy), and third place to Dave Decker (singing/guitar). After the talent show, Jason Norton announced the upcoming contest, for which the 25 top point earners will be going to sunny Costa Rica. Jason also announced that the 2013 Shelf Reliance convention will be held at the Utah Valley Convention Center in Provo on March 21^st–23^rd. Finally, we ended convention with a bang with an unforgettable performance by the legendary ’80s band the Harvesters, made up of Jason Norton, Steve Palmer, Jason Budge, Eric Morgan, and Court Shepherd.

Convention is a great time to meet new people, learn more about Shelf Reliance and THRIVE, and recommit to your business. We know you’ve all had some great experiences while you were at convention, so let us know what they were! Leave a comment below to share your convention stories and comments with us.

As many of you know, our executive team has been traveling around the country holding opportunity meetings for people who are interested in Shelf Reliance and the opportunities it provides. We thought we’d update everyone on the meetings that were held last month.

At the beginning of February, Jason Norton, our Executive Vice President, held meeting is San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas, Texas. Scott Dalton, Director of Direct Sales, held a series of meetings in Colombus, OH, St. Louis and Kansas City, MO, and Logan, UT, with the help of founders Steve Palmer and Jason Budge. At the end of the month, Steve also held a meeting in Sacramento, CA, and Jason Norton held one in Denver, CO.

Opportunity meeting in Logan, UT

These meetings are a great way for prospective consultants to learn about Shelf Reliance and THRIVE products, as well as an opportunity for those who are already consultants to receive valuable training. At these meetings, consultants often give testimonials and help with the training. At the meetings in February, training was given on topics like prepping hosts, giving parties, closing sales, the importance of the Q, convention, building a team, and providing good customer service.

The executive team felt a high level of energy at these meetings, and over 50 consultants signed up because of the efforts of everyone involved.  Check the Meetings & Events page to see where the executives will be going next and if they’re holding a meeting near you!

Have any memorable experiences to share from February’s meetings? Post them here!

In honor of our spotlight on the Under the Bed FRS, I’ve been thinking about food storage options for people who don’t have a lot of space. I know I’ve never lived in a place that’s had enough storage—it always seems like no matter how much storage space I have, it’s not quite enough. So I’ve been scouring the internet for innovative ways to get more storage out of the spaces you have. Here are some of the best ideas I was able to find for the parts of the house that are most conducive to storing food:

Kitchen: This is the most important area to focus on if you’re looking to increase storage space for your food, so that you can have your food within reach while you’re cooking.

• By hanging bulky pots and pans from hooks or racks on your kitchen wall, you can free up valuable cabinet space for food. A magnetic strip for knives and other metal cooking gadgets can also give you some more drawer room.
• Use your counter space. If you get a decorative holder for your cooking utensils and keep it on the counter, it will free up drawer space without cluttering your kitchen too much. Another idea is keeping basic cooking supplies like flour and sugar in decorative canisters on the counter, making a fun display while being functional and freeing up your cabinets.
• Make use of every inch of cupboard space. You might want to install pull-out shelves in cupboards that are very narrow or deep to make use of room that’s hard to access. Building a lazy Susan into your corner cabinet will utilize every bit of that space and make it easy to access. You can also attach wire shelves or baskets to the underside of existing shelves to add shelving and organization to cabinets that are too big and become cluttered. Mounting lid racks on the inside of cabinet doors will keep lids out of the way.
• If you have hanging cabinets, you can mount things underneath them to increase your counter space. There are attachments for tin foil and plastic wrap, plastic bags, paper plates, and even appliances like electric can openers and coffee pots.

Garage/outdoor storage spaces: The garage is one of the best places for extra food, and organizing the space better can make room for whole shelves of food.

• Utilize your walls. A wall of pegboard will keep tools and even larger items like bikes out of the way.
• Use ceiling space. If your garage has rafters, you can store bulky items like canoes, skis, the pod for your car, etc., across them. You can even attach a large piece of sturdy plywood across them to create a high-up shelf for items you don’t need to get to very often, or ones you only use during a certain time of year.
• You might want to think about getting a small outdoor shed to store garden tools and other things that won’t be affected by the cold. That way you can keep more food in the garage.

Under the stairs: This can be valuable space for storing extra food, especially if it’s close to the kitchen.

• Cubbies or bins that can stack on top of each other are great for this space, since you can fit them under each stair step to maximize storage space. If you have lighting and the space is accessible enough, you can even turn it into a walk-in pantry.
• For tight nooks and crannies where shelves or boxes just won’t fit, install hooks and hang things from them. 
• Here are some amazing pictures of what people have done with their under-the-stairs areas. Most of these look pretty costly, but I loved how inventive people got, so maybe it will give you some inspiration on thinking outside the box to get more space out of a hard-to-use area.

Closets: closets can be a great place to store overflow food, and many people don’t use closet space efficiently. With some organization, you can free up the top shelves and bottom area of your closet for storing extra food or emergency supplies.

• Installing a second rod lower in your closet instantly doubles your clothing storage space and frees up some shelf space. Hang longer clothing items on the top rod and shorter ones on the bottom.
• Tiered hanging baskets can also maximize closet space by holding items like socks, ties, belts, or shoes.
• An over-the-door shoe rack can clear the floor of your closet and is great for holding other small items as well.

 Living room/hallways: Even if the space you free up in these rooms might not work for storing food, these tips will help organize some of the most visible places in your house.

• These days a lot of furniture comes with built-in storage. If you need to buy a coffee table, entertainment center, etc., make sure to get one with lots of shelves or inner storage that isn’t visible, so you have somewhere to keep books and magazines without the room looking cluttered. You can even get couches that have built-in storage, like this neat banquette I found online.
• If you’re willing to shave a foot or so off your room’s width, you can put in bookshelves or cubbies ceiling to floor. As long as you keep the books or knick knacks you’re storing organized, it will give your room a fun, unique look without seeming cluttered. If you want to store food without it being visible, you can put shelving against the wall, install a rod across the length of the room, and pull curtains across it. For an even more invisible look you can attach panels of fabric to the ceiling that reach down to the floor, creating a layer of hidden shelving behind what looks like wallpaper.
• Corner shelving makes great use of places that get little traffic, especially in places like behind the door. In a tight entryway, just pad or upholster the top of a sturdy corner shelf to create an extra seat for putting on shoes.
• Adding shelves high up on the walls can store things out of the way of traffic while drawing the eye upwards, which makes the room appear larger. This can be a good way to display knick knacks and clear more space on shelves for things that are used on a regular basis.

Have any great storage tips of your own you’d like to share, or pictures of how you’ve made the most of your storage spaces? Post them here!

You love the idea of organizing and rotating your canned food supply with a Food Rotation System, but what if you just don’t have room for a freestanding shelf? Not to worry! With our newest FRS system, you can store food in a space everyone has but few use—under the bed. Instead of housing dust bunnies and the occasional stray sock, the space under your bed can now store and rotate over 50 cans to become its own mini Home Store. Available in three heights and for either #10 or pantry cans, the Under the Bed FRS is the same width and depth as a Harvest unit and customizable to the width of any cans you want to store. You can increase the space under your bed even further with bed risers that hold up to 2,000 pounds and provide an extra 5 inches of height. With this great FRS option, you don’t have to let a lack of space inhibit your food storage!

The Cansolidator is one of the absolute best ways to get a cluttered pantry looking shipshape. It can be hard to tell what cans you have stored in your cupboard, but with the Cansolidator each type and size of can has its own place that you can even label.  You don’t have to worry about the older cans getting pushed to the back as only the cans in front are used on a daily basis—just put the new cans in on the top row, and our SmarTrac technology ensures that they roll to the front as you use cans out and put new ones in, so that the first cans you store are the first you use. Cansolidators, like freestanding FRS systems, are customizable to fit any can size, and you buy systems that hold 20, 40, or even 60 cans to fit your personal storage space. Because they can be stacked and expanded to virtually any dimensions, many people buy multiple Cansolidators to turn their existing shelving into its own Food Rotation System if they don’t have room for a freestanding system.

Gone are the days where you had to take all the cans off to shelf to get to that last can of beans you know you have back there somewhere. With Cansolidators, storing, organizing, and rotating your food storage is easy!

We’re gearing up for another great THRIVE Live broadcast tomorrow! Click here for details on the broadcast or to watch last month’s broadcast. This month Chef Todd will be showing us how to make some delicious soups and biscuits. After the broadcast you can sample Chef Todd’s cooking, ask him your questions about cooking with THRIVE, and see if you’ve won one of our giveaways. And this month, one of our giveaways will be especially for those who follow us online or through Twitter! You do not have to be present at the broadcast to win.

You will be entered to win a product featured by Chef Todd in the broadcast if you do any of these things:

• Subscribe to our Facebook page, blog, or Twitter
• Share a link about the broadcast through facebook or post it on your own blog
• Tweet or link using these hashtags: #shelfreliance, #thrivefoods, or #thrivelive

About THRIVE Live Cooking Broadcasts

True to their name, these cooking broadcasts are live—you can watch them as they happen via lour live stream, look at the recipes, and even try cooking them up yourself while you watch! THRIVE Live broadcasts bring Chef Todd right into your home, demonstrating brand-new THRIVE recipes that he’s developed specifically to be quick, easy, and delicious. With his firecracker personality and expert knowledge, Chef Todd proves that with our array of THRIVE products, the possibilities are truly endless—when you have a Home Store full of versatile and long-lasting THRIVE foods, your recipes are limited only by your imagination, rather than time or the availability of foods. As you watch THRIVE ingredients turn into delicious meals in minutes in front of your eyes, it’s easy to see that THRIVE truly does what it claims—it simplifies your life.

Tune in the last Wednesday of every month to see what Chef Todd’s cooked up especially for you! Or come in to the THRIVE Kitchen at our American Fork headquarters to be part of the live studio audience and watch Chef Todd work his magic in person!

Hello, fellow lovers of convenient, affordable, and time-saving food storage and emergency supplies! I’m Suzie Q, and I’ll be posting my ideas, tips, and insights about building a thriving lifestyle regularly here on the Shelf Reliance blog. For my maiden post, I’d like to share my thoughts on the inspiration for my blog name—the Q. To me, this is one of the most appealing aspects of Shelf Reliance. They’re transforming the way we think about food storage by bringing the grocery store into our own homes with the Q.

Maybe some people find grocery shopping soothing. I’m sure there are people out there who really enjoy it. I, however, am not one of those people. The last thing I want to do after working all day is trek to the grocery store, try to remember all the items on the list I invariably left at home, and have to wait in line and then haul my groceries to my car and back into the house—and that’s all before I can even start to think about what I’m actually going to make for dinner! I like that the Q cuts out all these unnecessary steps—with THRIVE foods I already know I’m getting food that’s in many cases more nutritious and has fewer preservatives than store-bought food, so I don’t have to spend time puzzling over labels at the store, and it’s easy to order on my Q. And if I’m not sure what I need, instead of wandering the aisles I just use the online THRIVE Planner to find the types and amounts of food I’ll need for my specific family.

Don't you hate having to pore over products in the store for the best nutrition and pricing?

The groceries are shipped to the doorstep every month, so I can keep my Home Store stocked without having to run to the store every other day to replace whatever I’ve run out of. This way I can spend that time cooking food I’ll actually want to eat, rather than having to throw something together as quickly as possible because by this point I’m so hungry I can’t see straight, much less prepare a gourmet meal. And one of the great things about the THRIVE foods I get on the Q is that they’re already prepared—cleaned, peeled, sliced, chopped, etc.—so I can put together a nice meal fairly quickly. 

My other constant concern with food is money. Like most people, I have a certain budget to stick to. It’s easy to fit the Q into my budget because it lets me choose how much I want to invest each month. I can just reallocate part of my current grocery budget to Q items I know I’ll need every month. This means fewer trips to the grocery store, which translates into more money in my pocket because I don’t have to use as much gas and I don’t have a chance to make needless impulse buys at the store. These might sound like fairly insignificant savings, but they really add up over the months! I like this video from Chef Todd about the Q and Home Store because he hits on some other ways the convenience of the Q and having a Home Store can save you time and money that you might not think of at first.

The Q works for me because I can work grocery shopping into my schedule and budget, not the other way around. So why do you use the Q? Post a comment below to let us know!

Over the next few weeks we’ll be highlighting the product that started it all—the Food Rotation System (FRS). These shelving systems were Shelf Reliance’s first product, invented to satisfy an urgent need in the food storage industry for shelving that helps rather than hinders storage. If you have food storage, you know storing it can be a nightmare. It’s hard to keep large quantities of food organized, and the new food you buy gets put in front, pushing older cans to the back where they grow older still. The FRS completely revolutionizes the way you store cans, with rotating can tracks that roll the first cans you put in right to the front. With an FRS, you can reduce spoilage and waste by rotating through your food and keeping your cans accessible.

Every FRS is completely customizable so that you can choose the exact size of each can track, allowing you to store anything from tiny tuna cans to large #10 THRIVE cans. We understand that no two storage spaces are the same, so the FRS comes in four widths, four heights, and two depths to optimize any existing storage space. We’ve even put an FRS planner on our website that allows you to input the specifics of your storage space and then suggests the FRS that will work best in your space. With its patented first-in-first-out rotation technology and complete customizability, the FRS is unlike any other shelving on the market. Watch this link to see what Jason Budge, one of our founders, has to say about FRS.

Let us know why you love FRS by leaving a comment below. Stay tuned as we highlight great FRS products like Ready Racks, Cansolidators, and Under the Bed FRS systems in following weeks.

Happy Father’s Day to all the wonderful fathers all over the world. We love you and appreciate all you do to keep us safe, strong, and happy.

Congratulations, David. You are truly an inspirational father and husband.

Husband and Father, First and Forever

I know this contest is for fathers, and mine was wonderful; however, I would like to tell you about my husband who is the father of my four children. In March of 2010 we decided that we would take a Cruise to Alaska for our anniversary. We had everything planned and even had our first payment already paid. Then, in April I found a lump in my right breast. It was cancerous. I was devastated! I did not know what was going to happen and did not know if we would be able to go on our trip. I ended up needing a lumpectomy and I also went through chemo and radiation. During this time my sweet husband kept our house clean, made meals, and worked a full-time job.

During this time a friend told me her husband left her when she had her cancer, so one day I asked my husband when he was going to leave me. He gave me a strange look and asked what I was talking about. I told him about my friend and he took me in his arms and told me that our marriage is forever and that just because one of us gets sick doesn’t mean we give up. We stand by each other no matter what.

He has been by my side through thick and thin and has been my caregiver through all of this. We did get to go on the cruise even though it was right in the middle of my treatments. Fortunately, the doctor thought it would do me good to get away. My relationship with my husband has gone from good to the best ever. He is my life and I don’t know where I would be without him.

Congratulations David, you win an Urban Road Warrior Automobile Emergency Kit!