Just a thought- since everyone interested in this topic must have some food stashed for the long term.
At this time of year, many food pantry's are in the collection mode. If you have not "rotated out" in your natural "first in first out" method I find that scouring the pantry for shelf dates sell by in the next 6 months. Kicking into the local food drive feels good and is a good reason to buy new items for long term storage and replacing the stuff due to expire in 2008.
It is a shame to find stuff a year or more past the sell by date that food banks could use.