FSM 3: A Food Storage Manager

Almost 24 years ago I released a shareware program for the Apple II to allow you to use your computer to keep an inventory of the food you had in your pantry. It was driven by a need to keep better track of our family’s food storage supply–something that McKay Coppins recently wrote about.

Growing up in a family of 7 children, the sheer quantity of food and the logistics of making sure it was routinely rotated to prevent spoilage and waste was significant–especially since my parents had a goal of having a full year supply of food on hand in the event of a long-term emergency. Although the Apple II was very much a vintage computer by this time, I had a good understanding of BASIC, and we had a spare computer. It sat on an old classroom desk just outside the door of our food storage room.

Originally released as shareware, at a cost of $10 USD, I only received interest from one person who requested permission to share it with his shareware club. I never received a single payment for the program. I am now releasing it under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. If you have an interest in retro computing, feel free to download and try out the program. Play around with it, change it, share it. Just make sure to give credit.