There are some simple ways to preserve food to help it to last longer. One way that I have found to be fairly easy and inexpensive is to dry pack can items. A dry pack canner will can items that contain little or no moisture. I have dry pack canned flour, sugar, rice, pasta and wheat. These items work well with the canner, and will store for varying lengths of time depending on the food you are storing. You can find a list for the different foods and their length of storage time here.
When you dry pack can, you basically fill the cans with the food you are canning. You will want to leave a little room for expansion. If the food is moister such as brown sugar or raisins you will want to leave a little more room. Then you put an oxygen absorber packet in with the food. After that you take the can over to dry pack canner and seal it shut. It is an easy process. You can use number ten size cans, which are fairly inexpensive to purchase. You can also reuse the cans if you buy a tool that will put a new lip on the can. You can reuse the can about three times.
You can purchase a dry pack canner here. They are quite expensive however, so I would recommend finding one that you can use instead. Several churches have them available to use or to borrow. You may simply call your local food ministry and see if they know of any that are available in your area. You can buy the food you want to can in bulk through a place such as Walton Feed or a club store.
It is important to remember to rotate your foods, so that you can get the highest nutritional value available from them. Dry pack canning also helps to keep rodents and insects out of your food storage. It is not safe to dry pack can items that need pressure or heated canning such as fruits and vegetables. These items need to be heated to prevent botulism and other contaminates. Dry pack canning is only for dry goods.